Three Humans, a Jaffa, and a baby
by Nadie2
Summary: A strange alien device leaves SG-1 with a rapidly growing infant who has a mix of their DNA and the sum total of the knowledge they've acquired. Will eventually cover seassons seven through ten. Shippy, but not right away. S/J. D/V.
1. Decanting

Between "Death Kneel" and "Heroes"

AU, but I tried to stay true to my characters.

Thanks to Bruised Reed for the beta.

"All right, Major, what does this thing do?" Jack asks with a yawn staring at the large machine.

"I'm still not sure," Sam says biting her lip.

"Definitely, Ancient in design," Daniel says.

"And it's something about DNA," Sam says.

"DNA eh? Alien or human?" Jack asks.

"I'm not really sure. I think it compares DNA," Sam says.

"A contest? Sorta like a sport. It's been awhile since we had new off world sport. So which one of us would win?" Jack asks.

"Not you," Daniel says.

"Thor says my DNA is superior," Jack says pouting.

"I'm sure if it was a competition you would win," Sam says pacifying Jack.

"Thank you, at least one of you appreciates me," Jack says.

"Could you help me lift this panel?" she asks Jack.

"Sure," he says moving forward. As Jack lifts the panel, a needle darts out and stabs him and Sam. They look over to where Teal'c and Daniel were translating and they saw that each of them has been poked as well.

"Any idea what we were just injected with, Major?' Jack asks.

"I don't think we injected with anything," she says looking at the mark, "I think it took a sample of our blood."

"So we get to find out just how superior my DNA is?" Jack asks with a grin.

"I'm really not sure," she mutters looking back at the screen. "Of all the sexist…" she mutters, "Daniel, tell me I'm reading this wrong," she says.

He looks over at the screen, "Well you're only wrong if you _don't_ think it says "girl" and "boy.""

"That's what I thought. Stupid question. Well computer, I'm a girl," she says pressing the screen grumpily, "Now if you lock me out of anything, because of it, I'm going to kick your Ancient ass so hard your creator will feel it in the past.

Jack grins. Sam glares at him.

"I have no doubt of your ability to kick the computer's ass, Major," he says.

Sam goes back to examining to computer. Five minutes later she suddenly freezes, "Holy Hannah!"

"Did I win?" Jack asks.

Her eyes go to the center where a glass cylinder drops down and fills with clear liquid. Then a needle comes out and drops something into it. "Holy Hannah!" she repeats moving toward the container and putting her hand against it.

"What is it?" Jack asks memorized by her amazement.

Daniel leans over to the consol she was looking at, "Holy crap," he says.

"What is it?" Jack demands.

"Congratulations, Daddies!" Sam says turning toward him.

"What?" Jack says.

"It seems the machine took our DNA and made a baby," Daniel says.

"Whose DNA?" Jack says looking nervously at Daniel.

"All our DNA," Sam says.

"Well, I may not have paid a great deal attention in school, but I do remember Sister Mary Claire's Life Science class informing me that to make a child it takes one male and one female," Jack says.

"This isn't normal reproduction," Sam says.

"No kidding, the normal way is more fun," Jack points out, "This way hurt," he says slowly rubbing his pin prick injury.

"Oh come on, they took a tiny bit of your blood, you'll be fine," she says wondering why her CO only complained when the injury was not really serious.

"Can we please focus on the fact that there is a baby growing over there?" Daniel explains.

"O'Neill was merely requesting information on our offspring," Teal'c says stoically.

"Oh for crying out loud, this is creepy," Jack mutters.

"Daniel, you need to get your video camera over here and record this," Sam says.

"I think we need to translate and figure out what is going on," Daniel says.

"Right now we are witnessing a human grow from a single celled organism in a glass container. A chance we will probably never have again. We can translate after it's born," Sam says.

"You want Daniel to film for the next nine months?" Jack asks.

"Hour," Sam corrects

"Actually, the ancient word 'hora' doesn't translate as an hour. It's based on 1/20 of a day on the Ancient's first home world which equals about 88 minutes."

"Hold it! We're having a baby in 88 minutes?" Jack asks.

"Give or take," Daniel says with a shrug.

"Daniel, get the camera on the kid, Sam get over here and explain what the hell is going on," Jack says pointing to the computer consul.

"DanielJackson, I will operate the audiovisual recording unit," Teal'c says seeing Daniel's reluctance to leave the translating.

"Now how is it possible that this kid is from all of our DNA?" Jack asks again.

"It compared our DNA sir, gene loci by gene loci. It selected the best allele at every gene, regardless of which of the four of us it came from. Then it took the best genes and spliced them together into one DNA sequence and inserted it into an egg, which is currently," she glances at the computer, "starting to form brain tissue. The side of the tube has magnifying properties. I would like to observe…"

"Go Carter," he says.

He squints at the tube and walks closer, "Does that thing have a tail? Who are we blaming for the tail?" he glances around, "It didn't get Juniors DNA did it? I mean there is no Junior anymore, but…"

"Sir, tails are completely normal at this state in development," Sam says giggling.

"And there were only four samples of DNA. No Gou'ald," Daniel says still examining the computer.

"Thank God for that," Jack mutters.

"Yes, this kid looks completely human…er human Jaffa hybrid?" Daniel says flicking to another screen with his finger.

"Is he going to need a snake?" Jack asks with concern.

"Sir, when I thought it was asking my gender…" Sam begins.

"Ok, so this machine comes with gender selection. Is she going to need a snake?" Jack rephrases.

"I don't know," Daniel shrugs.

"Look at the tiny arms," Sam says mesmerized.

"I don't see any arms," Jack says looking over her shoulder.

"Ok, arm buds," she says.

"Cute," he says sarcastically. She turns and glares at him.

"This is amazing, we're the first people ever to watch a fetus grow," Sam says.

"Don't call it that. It's a baby," Jack mutters, "And do we know if it's going to keep growing like this after it's born, because ten minutes per month would mean a life span of…"

"About a week, Sir, I'm really hoping not."

"How is it aging her? We dealing with nanites here?" he asks glancing at Daniel.

Daniel shrugs.

"T, hand the camera to me. You need to get to the gate and bring back Janet and whatever we'll need to stop the nanites as soon as the kid is born."

"I don't think it is going to be a problem, Sir, I suspect that whatever makes them grow quickly is a chemical delivered through their artificial umbilical cord," Sam says indicating a plastic tube, "I suspect that she'll be growing at a normal rate as soon as she is uh…decanted?"

"Another word you're not allowed to use," he grumbles.

"Sorry, this is nothing like that, and if it was this kid would be an Alpha, plus, plus," Sam says.

"What are you guys talking about?" Daniel asks.

"I believe they are making reference to the novel _Brave New World _by Aldous Huxley, O'Neill," Teal'c says.

"You need to read more," Jack says grinning at Daniel.

"Ok, well unless this book explains how and why ancients wanted to create babies that are composites of several people let's get back to focusing," Daniel says.

"Did you still wish me to retrieve DoctorFraizer, O'Neill?" Teal'c asks.

"Might be a good idea, buddy," Jack says. Teal'c bows his head and leaves the room. Jack takes the camera as he glances at Daniel, "You ok?"

"Fine," Daniel says.

"You're not fine, Daniel. You're freaking out. Understandable, considering the instant Daddy circumstances you found yourself in. But just because this kid is genetically related to you, less so than a child the fun way would be, let me point out, doesn't mean that you have to have a role in the kid's life. These are weird circumstances, and no one would blame you for not having a role in that kid's life. We'll make sure it's safe, and someone takes care of it."

"I'll take her, Sir," Sam says her eyes never leaving the tiny life form.

"You don't have to take it either, Sam…" he begins.

"I want her, Sir," she says turning to him with something like desperation in her eyes.

"Ok, Major, we'll talk about this later. But noted," Jack says meeting her eyes.

"Thank you, Sir," he says turning back to the baby.

Daniel glances back at the paper "Well, I found a way to stop the rapid growth, but if I'm reading it right it would also leak the fluid out…"

"NO!" Jack and Sam both explain.

"My God, I wasn't actually considering pressing the 'abort' button! I was just repeating information." Daniel says.

"Sorry," Jack says.

Sam doesn't say anything.

"You think she'll be ok?" Jack asks softly.

"Sir, if this machine did what it said it was going to do she is going to be great. It's just…our experience with Ancient technology hasn't always been the best. I mean we've seen 'time machines' that really cause time loops, and healing devices which cause nasty addictions. Besides which this technology was never meant to work on humans or Jaffa, much less a combination of the two groups, so…I don't know sir," she says.

"She's fine," he says, "The tail is even gone."

"The tail was normal, Sir," she says giggling.

"So you say," he says. He leans forward, "She have fingers now?" he asks with his mouth close to the glass.

The baby flings her tiny arms out and moved toward the sound.

"Hey, she likes your voice, Sir," Sam said softly.

"Charlie used to move when I spoke too, but Sarah was further along," he says with a smile.

"Sarah wouldn't have felt him if he was moving at this stage," Sam informs him.

"This is kind of intense," Jack says looking at the baby once again.

"Good news, guys," Daniel says, "It looks like Sam was right. The baby's growth will slow after it's born," Daniel says.

"Slow by how much?" Jack asks, "All the way to normal?"

"The math is a little complicated," Daniel mutters.

Sam rolls her eyes, and goes to stand by him, "Double. Her growth will slow until it's about double normal. She'll stay at double the normal rate of growth until…"she pauses, "That word is years right?" she asks.

"No… on Atlantis 'anonous' was 231 days…" Daniel says.

"So two years three months…" Sam says after a quick calculation.

"You have to adjust for a different length in day…"Daniel says.

"So bottom line this kid's infant and toddler years are double time. We can figure out the specifics later, what then?" Jack asks.

"She should grow normally," Sam says smiling, and returning to the cylinder, "hi," Sam says moving her mouth close to the glass, and placing her hand on the side. The baby turns so its closed eyes are toward her, "Hi sweetie." Sam wants to say a lot more. She wants to say I love you, and I'm your Mom. But she doesn't, because she knows this baby isn't just hers. She knows that Daniel and Teal'c aren't going to be the problem. Daniel didn't want to raise his wife's child. Teal'c had a son he saw only occasionally. She had no doubt the men would want to be involved. Certainly they would help if needed. But they would be more than happy with the sort of relationship they had with Cassie. The Colonel, he would be the problem.

But Sam knew. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she wanted to keep this baby. More than anything else in her life.

"Carter, is that blond hair with that brown skin?" Jack asks.

"It would appear so, Sir," Sam says.

"Interesting combo," he says.

"From what I read it would pick out the best genes even if they are recessive. It really doesn't care if they go well together," she says.

"But how does it define better?" Jack asks critically.

"Well the dark skin is a useful adaptation in warm climates, most climates. It prevents sunburn. The blond I can't explain, Sir," she says.

"The blond I understand, Carter," Jack says.

"You have always had a thing for blonds," Sam says.

"It picks the rarest trait when it can't see an advantage of one over the other. And I had blond hair as a child too, Jack. You flirting with me?" Daniel asks.

"I'm not flirting with anyone, Daniel Daddy," Jack responds mockingly.

"Interesting!' Daniel explains. "I just found the percentages of genes she got from each of us."

"Who won?" Jack asks looking at him.

"Actually you did," Daniel says in amazement.

"You're kidding, the Colonel?" Sam says filled with genuine surprise.

"Hey now!" Jack explains.

"Sorry, Sir," Sam says.

"I have superior DNA, Thor said so," Jack says with his arms crossed.

"And apparently the Ancients agree," Daniel says.

"Who got second?" Sam says.

"That would be you Sam," Daniel says.

"Yes!" she explains pumping her arms up in the air.

"Because it isn't a competition," Jack says.

"It was a competition a moment ago when you won," she points out.

"That kid likes your voices," Daniel says seriously. They both turn back to the cage.

"She's sucking her thumb," Sam says.

"God she's beautiful," Jack replies.

Sam closes her eyes. She's afraid. Afraid the Colonel will get this child, that is more his than hers.

"What's the percentages, Daniel?" she asks.

"35% 25% 21% 19%," Daniel says.

"And the loser is?" Jack says.

Daniel glares at him.

"Danny boy," Jack says in a show boating announcer voice.

"Jack!" Daniel says.

"She just opened her eyes," Jack says.

"She's got your eyes, Daniel," Sam says over her shoulder.

"What the hell did she get from me?" Jack asks.

"Superior DNA, sir, that's what you've been telling us." Sam mocks.

"Funny, Major, funny," Jack says.

They hear the sound of Janet Fraizer's heels clicking on the floor of the ruins, and see her enter with Teal'c behind her.

"When Teal'c told me the news…I just couldn't believe it," she says, moving close to the cylinder. How far along is…it?"

"She is about an hour and ten minutes along which translates to roughly 7 months," Sam says.

"This is amazing," Janet says, "You've got the whole thing on tape?"

"Yes, it's all recorded, but we need to know if she's ok," Jack says.

"Colonel, you'll understand if this is a touch out of my normal experience. If I was dealing with a pregnant woman I'd do an ultrasound and a blood test and listen to a heartbeat. The view I see is better than an ultrasound, I can't think of a safe way of getting blood while she's in the tube, and I'll try and see if I can hear a heartbeat through the glass. But to be perfectly honest with you, it's going to be pretty inconclusive until I have it at my lab and can do a set of tests on it. It's…"

"Beautiful," Sam says grinning at her.

"Amazing," Janet adds.

"I think I heard something about a stethoscope," Jack says impatiently.

Janet obediently puts one up to the glass.

"O'Neill, you are failing to hold the audiovisual equipment steady," Teal'c says taking it back from him.

Janet pulls it away, "I think she's fine," she says with a smile.

"Watch this Janet," Sam says moving close to the cylinder, "Hello little one."

All four of the baby's tiny limbs stretch out a wiggle.

"Baby's a dancer," Jack says, and she wiggles again at his voice.

"That's actually completely developmentally normal for a child of her size," Janet says with a smile.

"But the fact that it's ordinary doesn't diminish its coolness even a teeny tiny bit," Jack says.

"It doesn't, Colonel," Janet says with a smile.

At almost precisely the 87 minutes Daniel had predicted some buzzers start to go off.

"This message says to back away from the cylinder," Daniel says. Sam, Janet, and Teal'c obediently take a step back.

"Someone has got to catch the kid," Jack says.

"Catch the kid, Sir?" Sam asks.

"Right, because if they lift up the cylinder it's going to wash out with…" he begins. But is cut off by the fact that the cylinder lifts an inch draining the amniotic fluid, and drenching Jack.

"Unless they lifted it slowly, Sir," Sam says with a smile.

"Funny," Jack mutters.

The cylinder is steadily drained out. The second her lungs are above water the baby lets out a loud cry.

"It tells you to step forward now," Daniel says laughing.

"Thanks," Jack says sarcastically. The last of the cylinder is lifted, and Jack takes the baby into his arms.

"Hey there little girl," he says with a smile.

"Sir, may I?" Sam asks. He nods, and she holds the baby close to her.

"You need to check her out Doc?" Jack asks.

"I can do a much more complete examination when we get back through the gate. It would probably just be best for us to wait until then," Janet replies.

"Ugh, guys?" Daniel says, "It's saying something about eating, or getting eaten…" Daniel looks confused at that panel.

"Get the kid out of here!" Jack says ushering Sam who is still holding the baby, out before him.

"Colonel," Janet says pointing to the pedestal on which the cylinder used to sit. A hand has placed something new on it. It is long and thin and at the end of it there is what is unmistakably a bottle's nipple.

"I don't know if we want to start feeding this kid genetically altered alien crap right after she's born," Jack says wearily.

"Sir, with all due respect she IS a genetically altered alien," Sam begins.

"As am I," Teal'c added.

"…and we don't have any bottles or formula at the SGC. I sent a nurse for some basic baby supplies before we came, so if you feel it better to wait…" Janet says.

"We don't know how old that stuff is," Jack says suspiciously.

"MajorCarter," Teal'c says offering a spare shirt from his gear.

"Thanks," she says wrapping the baby up. "I think the Ancients were smarter than us. It could be something matched exactly to her DNA, or for all we know, that stuff could be what stops her from growing quickly. I think we should give it to her."

Jack nods. Janet retrieves the bottle. "You want me to do it, Sam?" Janet asks.

"No, it's ok. I have fed a baby before," she says with a smile.

"Ok, when she's done with the bottle we head back to the 'gate. I want this little one checked out as soon as we can," Jack says.

"I can walk and feed her," Sam says. Suddenly four devices much like those which contained the ancient depository of knowledge jet out of the wall and grab SG-1's heads much like it did to Jack's. Janet reaches out to take the baby, but she didn't need to take the precaution, because Sam would not let her go even into Janet's secure hands.

The four devices release them all at once, and Janet is again prepared to catch the baby if Sam goes down like Jack did when he encountered the Ancient repository of knowledge. But they don't fall.

"What did it put in our heads?" Jack asks pointing toward the wall which no longer shows any sign of the machines.

Sam hands the baby and bottle to him. She turns to the computer interface, and flips through a couple of screens. "It didn't give anything, it copied something," she says. "Oh, no, Jack…get…" she says quickly. But before she can finish one of the devices is around the baby's head.

"Damn it!" Jack shouts. "What is it doing to the kid?"

She closes her eyes, "Giving her our knowledge?"

"They are transferring our FOUR brains into that little girl's head?" Jack asks in alarm.

"That's going to be almost as bad as what happened to Jack," Daniel says in alarm.

"Not to mention awkward," Jack says.

"Not our memorizes, just our knowledge," Sam says.

"And as smart as you folks are our four brains does not equal a civilization," Jack says grinning, "Conceited much, Daniel?"

"What I meant is that is four times what a human brain is meant to contain," Daniel says.

"A baby's brain is very elastic," Janet says.

"The computer just manufactured the infant, it should therefore be good at determining what the brain is capable of enduring," Teal'c says.

"Guys, from what I'm reading she would be sort of a blank slate if she didn't get our minds," Daniel says.

"That would make sense. She's going to have a lot less time to learn than most children do. If she didn't have a sort of leg up she would actually be far behind most children her age," Janet points out.

"So when this thing comes off her, she's going to know everything we do?" Jack asks.

"I'd be surprised if she could access it right away," Janet says, "it's possible she wouldn't understand it until she learned to talk."

"Also possible she'll understand every word we say even though she wouldn't be able to talk or have the motor skills necessary to respond," Sam says.

Janet nods. The device retreats from the baby. The baby doesn't move. "Sweetie?" Jack asks in horror bouncing her.

The baby opens her eyes and looks at him in surprise.

"You ok?" Jack asks.

"Her vocal cords are incapable of speaking, even if her mind is, Colonel," Janet says.

"I've heard you ask that question plenty of times when you didn't expect a response," Jack mumbles giving the doctor a glare. "Let's get this kid out of here before something else happens to her."

"Sir?" Sam asks.

"I've got more practice feeding a baby while walking. I'll hand her to you when she's done," he says placing the bottle in the baby's mouth.


	2. Coming Home

Thanks to Bruised Reed for the beta.

General Hammond is standing on the floor of the gate room as SG-1 comes through. This is something he usually only does when he's greeting a diplomat or when someone had been missing for a long time.

"Teal'c said," He doesn't finish his sentence, "My god, the four of you really had a baby," Hammond says.

"Yes, sir," Sam says.

"Get that baby checked out, we'll have a debriefing at 1600 hours. By the time we're done we'll probably have test results back," he says. He lightly touches the top of the babies blond head.

"Major," he says softly as the rest of the team turns toward the door, "Do you want me to put a call through to Jacob?"

She nods, "Just tell him to come when he can. Make sure he knows it isn't an emergency. That nothing is wrong," she says holding the baby close to her.

He nods.

"I'm going to have to take her blood," Janet says when Sam gets to the infirmary. Sam nods drawing one of the baby's arms out of Teal'c's shirt. The baby is sleeping, but as soon as the pin enters her arm her eyes go wide in surprise. Yet she doesn't make a sound.

"Oh, my brave little girl," Sam says rocking her when the blood is drawn.

"Hey now, just because you make a sound when someone takes your blood doesn't make you a coward," Jack protests.

"We'll just have to see if you can be as quiet as the baby when the nurse gets to you, Colonel," Janet says.

"Why do I have to have my blood drawn?" Jack whines.

"You were stabbed with an alien needle we need to make sure they didn't put anything in as well as taking something out," Janet says.

"What about this one?" Sam says.

"I'd like to do an MRI. Some of the clones we've seen have had problems with their organs. The method by which she was made bears some similarity to cloning technology. A quick scan should rule all of that out. It might also give us a really good picture of what is going on in her mind. Whether her mind is going to be able to handle what's been put into it. And I'll need some measurements so we can keep track of her growth."

"Ok, baby, stretch out nice and tall," Sam says laying her down, but keeping her hand near so the baby couldn't roll off the lab table. The baby throws her arms above her head and lets out a long stretch and yawn. The four members of SG-1 glance at one another.

"Coincidence?" Sam asks.

"Maybe," Jack says, "Touch your nose baby girl," he says. The baby flails about a little, but her hand never gets near her nose.

"It could also be a lack of motor skills," Janet points out. "I'm going to measure you now," Janet tells the baby. Janet takes the tape measure and makes her measurements before placing the baby on the scale.

"If you do understand everything we say, and you're terrified right now," Daniel says, "Know that we will take care of you, and that you are going to grow at double the normal rate. So you'll have more control of your body soon."

Sam picks up the baby and brings it to the MRI machine they have all become too familiar with since it became a first line of defense in Gou'ald detection after Sam's encounter with Jolinar.

"While I do this you four should go have your physicals," she says.

"I'll stay," Sam says at the same time Jack says, "I'll just make sure she's ok."

Janet smiles at them, "Alright, but this isn't getting either of you out of providing a blood sample."

"Wouldn't dream of trying to circumvent you, Major," Jack says with a sly grin.

"Right, so I'm just imagining all the tricks you've played on my nurses over the years?" Janet says.

As soon as the baby is inside of the MRI she starts to wail in protest.

"Baby," Sam says standing at the head and trying to get her to look at her, "It's going to be ok, I promise. Baby," she says again sounding more and more desperate.

"Turn it off!" Jack yells as the cries continue, "Get her out of there."

"Sir, I have to finish this scan in order to determine if the child is healthy or not," Janet insists.

"That baby is terrified, and we have to get her out of there!" he shouts.

"O'Neill, the baby is unharmed," Teal'c says leaving his physical to stand between the doctor and the Colonel.

Jack calms down with the presence of his teammate, "Sorry," he mutters to the doctor, "Finish your test." He walks over and sticks out an arm for a nurse to take blood from. Sam gives a nervous glance at the doctor seeing Jack so compliant with orders.

Janet sets her jaw and finishes the test. As soon as it is over Sam picks up the wailing baby, and bounces her into comfort. Sam sits down to let the nurses examine her. Jack smiles, "I'm done, will you let me take the kid?" he asks.

She nods, handing the baby to him.

"You were pretty good at settling her down back there," Jack says.

"My nephew…he came along when my brother was a nineteen year old newly-wed. I was fifteen, and I used to baby sit him when my brother worked the night shift. I actually…the first couple years Max existed I was a pretty big part of his life. It nearly killed me when I went away to Academy."

"You'll make a great mother for her," he says smiling at her. But she isn't a fool. She knows how much pain is in that smile.

She closes her eyes, "Yes, well, you've made a pretty great father in the past, and you will again."

"Lucky duck, you know you've got three daddies?" Jack asks the baby choosing to ignore her comment, "I guess you'll have to call me Daddy Jack, huh? Wouldn't want you to get me confused with your less cool Daddies."

This earns a glare from Daniel and an eyebrow raise from Teal'c.

"Infant, I would advise against believing everything that O'Neill tells you," Teal'c says to the baby.

"Infant?" Jack says, "We really should decide on a name."

"There are a lot of things we need to decide on," Sam says. A nurse walks in with a few full shopping bags.

"Good!" Janet explains. "We'll get this little thing in a diaper and some clothes."

* * *

General Hammond is somewhat startled when SG-1 arrives at the briefing with the infant in question. Major Carter is holding her, and Jack can't keep his eyes off the infant. Hammond closes his eyes briefly, he knows this is going to get complicated-fast.

"Can you explain to me exactly how this happened?" Hammond asks.

"I'd have to go back to the planet to be sure," Sam begins before spilling out the tale. As she talks the baby begins to fuss, and Jack takes it from her without having to ask. When the baby still doesn't settle down he stands up, without asking leave, and bounces the baby around the room until it falls asleep in his arms.

Hammond sits back in his chair as the tale finishes. "I think we need to get that tape to the biology department. We should also send SG-17 back to that planet to see if we can learn anymore." He pauses and takes a deep sigh. Those were easy choices. The kind of choices he made all the time. Send people to this planet or that one. Have people study this or that. The choice that was going to have to be made next was not going to be so easy.

"We're going to have to find someone with very high security clearance to take that little gem," he says.

"I'd like to keep her, Sir," Major Carter says so quietly he can barely hear her. She glances nervously around the briefing room table.

He pauses. He hadn't expected that. When Cassie had come to this planet he had expected Sam to take her. Since she hadn't Hammond had figured Sam wouldn't be likely to take anyone.

"How do your teammates feel about this?" he asks gently.

Teal'c is the first one to respond, "I think MajorCarter would be an excellent mother. In addition it would grant me continued access to my progeny."

"I feel the same way. All the fun stuff about having a kid, without all the work, although," Jack says meeting Sam's eyes, "I'm willing too do the work to. I'd love to help as much as possible."

Hammond smiles, but it's a bitter one. He can see that this is quite the sacrifice for this second-in-command. If this is where Jack sits on the issue this may not destroy SG-1 after all. Of course it may destroy Jack.

"Daniel?" he asks.

"Yeah, Sam can have her," he says sounding light and dismissive, but there is something intense in his eyes as well.

"Ok, well we'll have to draw up some papers for the child. I suppose it will be a little complicated to figure out who to put on the line, 'father,' I assume you want to be listed as her mother?" the General asks Sam.

She nods her head.

"You should list Jack as the father, the kid shares more of his DNA than the rest of us," Daniel offers.

"I don't know if that's a good plan Daniel," Jack says, "Regulations being what they are…Sam and I can't really have a kid together."

"Besides, would not her coloring, raise questions?" Teal'c asks. He pulls himself up to full size in the chair, "I would be honored MajorCarter, to be listed as the father of your child on the official paperwork."

She tilts her head before nodding her acceptance. How quickly the child went from being "theirs" all of theirs, to being hers. It was a little bit frightening. She'd thought about being a single mom. Since her time on the Prometheus, she realized she wasn't happy, and was probably always going to be too busy saving the world to be happy, but she'd rejected the idea. Rejected it, because she couldn't stand the thought of leaving the baby at home while she went off world. Rejected it, because she thought it wasn't fair to the child. Because she didn't want to leave some innocent kid motherless. Because, she didn't want to take the time off SG-1 necessary for a pregnancy, or even an adoption. Rejected it, because it seemed selfish and scary. And rejected it, because it wouldn't be Jack's baby, so it wouldn't be perfect.

And yet, here was her daughter. As soon as she'd seen her, a circular bundle of cells through a microscope, she'd been head over heels in love. This baby wasn't theoretical. It wasn't something that could be batted away with a logical pros and cons list. It was her baby. Hers and Jack's. And Teal'c's and Daniel's, but mostly Jack's.

She thinks of Pete for the first time since the baby arrived in her life. She feels guilty that it took her this long to remember him. She doesn't know how he is going to react to all of this. She thinks she should care more than she does.

"General, I think I should take some time off," Sam says still looking at the table.

"How much do you need?" he asks softly.

She looks into his eyes, and finds that right now he isn't her commanding officer, but the friend of her father.

"Two weeks," she says.

He looks extremely relieved, "And after that you plan on resuming duties on SG-1?" he asks. She doesn't answer right away, "If not I could transfer you to a full time lab position."

"I don't think I'm quite ready to become a pencil pusher, sir," she says. "I'd like to stay on SG-1."

She looks around pleased to see relief on the faces of her teammates. Jack looks the most relieved of all of them.

"In that case, I'd like to remind you that the base day care is unique in the fact that it takes children for up to four days at a time. Handy when a mission runs long. If the mission happens to run longer than that, you might have to find the baby an honorary Grandpa. I know of someone who'd be willing to volunteer," he says with a twinkle in his eye. Hammond arranges his papers in the way that he does when he thinks a briefing is done.

"Sir, there is something else we need to discuss," she says.

Hammond looks at her in surprise.

"I'm not sure how the paperwork is going to reflect…I mean she's going to grow at double the normal rate for her first few years. I'm just thinking it might be a bit hard to explain to neighbors, and…Mark."

Actually, this baby would be hard enough to explain to her big brother without the fast growth, she thought. She could imagine the conversation now. "No, I didn't cheat on your best friend, but I still managed to pop out a little black baby while dating him. Sorry I didn't tell you until after the baby was born." Yeah, she should probably start thinking of a better way to phrase that. And Pete. At least she could tell him the truth, but it was still going to be awfully hard to tell him.

"I've been thinking about that," Janet says coming around the corner, "Sorry to interrupt, General." He gives her a nod which is all the prompting she needs to continue. "I think we should tell people she has a tumor pushing on her pituitary gland, causing rapid growth. Non cancerous and non life threatening, of course. Then when her growth slows we can fake a surgery which fixed it. It isn't exactly a story you'd want go telling to a doctor, but it would pass the sniff test for even an educated layman."

"That's really good, Janet," Sam says with a smile, "Could we use it to explain a short pregnancy?" she asks hopefully.

"I don't see why not, but we should probably make it only about four and a half months, not an hour and a half," she says with a smile.

"Of course," Sam says.

"The kid alright?" Jack asks not looking at Janet. The doctor is not the only one who sees the worry on Jack's face.

"The kid is fine as far as I can tell. She's got normal, strong organs. She's in the 90% of weight and 80% for height," Janet says.

"So it's a good thing I didn't ACTUALLY give birth to her," Sam says.

"Probably," Janet says with a laugh. "And my computer agrees with the Ancient computer in regard to her DNA make up. She is definitely a composite of all four of you."

"And I'm the DNA rock star," Jack adds with a grin.

"From what we could determine, Colonel, most of the DNA you passed on to the kid, is what geneticists refer to as 'junk DNA'."

Jack's face falls, Daniel grins, Sam snorts, and Teal'c raises an eyebrow.

Sam looks at Jack's face, "That just means they don't know what awesome traits you passed on to her. They haven't figured out what those traits do," she offers.

"That's one theory," Janet says deciding to push this a little further in revenge for all the times he'd made her infirmary into a playground, "Another is these genes are an evolutionary throw back to things humans don't need anymore."

"So I probably gave her superpowers," Jack says evenly.

"That is not even remotely close to what I said," Janet replies a little offended she couldn't rattle him.

"Naw, I probably gave her all kinds of cool traits like the ability to see in the dark and read minds," Jack says.

"Jack do you posses any of those traits?" Daniel asks.

"I don't have to posses them to pass them on, didn't you hear what Carter said about recessive traits?" he asks grinning.

Sam is about to defend herself when the klaxons blare. They all race down the flight of stairs that lead from the briefing room to the control room.

"Receiving Tok'ra IDC," Walter says glancing at the General.

"Open the iris," he says. He never gets tired of saying that, and its counterpart.

The iris opens and Jacob walks through in his Tok'ra robes. Sam's eyes grow big.

"Let's go say hi to Dad," Jack practically bounces. He looks back at Sam who looks rather pale.

"You ok?" he asks.

She nods. "Yeah, mind watching her for awhile?"

"No problem," Jack says, "I'll be in my office?" he asks.

She nods without looking at him.


	3. Naming

Thanks again to my beta Bruised Reed.

A reviewer pointed out that I had Sam refering to Jack as Jack in this chapter, and whoops I did. A lot. So out of charactor. I appologize, and think it's fixed. Thanks Janice. To all you other annomous reviewers I love reviews, and try to make changes based on what you say. To those who I can respond to, I do. Thanks you guys are great! And on your other issue Janice having neither of them on the bc woudn't be simpilar, because then they have to manufactor artifical parents, and it's her kid, I can see how she'd want people to know that.

"Dad," she says pulling him into a hug.

"Everything ok?" he asks. It's like the hugs she used to give him before they're relationship had changed for the better. The reserved hugs like she was always afraid she was about to get in trouble.

"Yeah," she says with a smile, "Let's go to my lab to talk."

In the hallway. Jacob catches a glimpse of Jack's back. "Jack!" Jacob says friendly. Jack turns before he can stop himself. He has an "oh crap" look on his face.

"Hey, Jack, and who is this?" Jacob asks.

"Ah…she doesn't have a name yet. It's her first day on the planet. Her first day anywhere, actually" Jack says.

"Who does she belong to?" Jacob asks.

"You know people owning other people has been illegal in the United States for quite a few years Jacob. I know where you come from it's more popular…" Jack hedges.

"Thanks Sir, but I was going to tell him in five minutes anyway," Sam says taking the baby from Jack arms. "This is my daughter."

Jacob glances from the baby in her arms to her face, "I haven't been gone that long Sammie. I saw you a few months ago. That kid definitely looks full term. Also, I think you could mention to your Dad if you were seven months pregnant, if I couldn't notice. And whose kid is this anyway?"

"I wasn't pregnant," she says.

"Adoption?" he says eyes softening with a small smile.

"Not exactly…there is some alien technology involved," she says.

"Back to the questions of whose kid is this?" Jacob asks.

"All of SG-1, sir," Jack says.

Jacob raises his eyes and gives Jack a glare. "The three of you had a kid with my daughter?" he says.

"A machine took our blood. The kid grew in a cylinder. I swear I never touched her," Jack says.

"And if he did, Dad, it would be none of your business," Sam says.

"He's your commanding officer," Jacob says.

"Which is why we never did anything. I'm smart enough to figure that out. So, by the way is the Colonel," she says snarkly, "Still none of your business."

The baby starts to fuss.

"There are some bottles in the bag," Jack says with a smile.

"Warming…" Sam says biting her lip.

"Actually warming isn't necessary, if the baby is willing to drink cold milk its fine. Charlie used to love it. But I've got an illegal hot plate and a pot in my room," he says.

"Bring them to my lab, sir?" she says with a smile.

"Will do Major, Sir," Jack says with a smile.

"So what arrangement have you come to concerning the baby?" Jacob asks.

"I'm going to take her," Sam says smiling down at the baby in her arms.

"Ass-holes," Jacob mutters.

Sam stops walking and studies her father in confusion for a second.

"Three fathers and not one of them is going to man up to help you?" he says.

"I wanted her," she says closing her eyes, "The Colonel wanted her too. He let me have her. They're all going to help. But I wanted her," she says firmly.

"I never knew you wanted kids," Jacob says softly.

"I knew I did. I just didn't know how badly until now. For a long time I've been putting my job in front of everything else. After the Prometheus… I knew that had to stop."

"What happened on the Prometheus?" he asks.

"I had a hallucination," she says, "Multiple hallucinations, actually. One of whom was you giving me really good advice."

"Hum, what was that?" he asked.

"That I deserve to be happy," she says quietly.

"You do," he says, "Listen, kids are a lot of work. I'm willing to help you Sammie."

"Thanks, Daddy. You want to hold your grandbaby?" she asks.

"Yeah," he says. "She's got your hair."

"Yeah, and Teal'c's skin. Going to be hard to explain since the Colonel going to be the most involved in her life," he says.

"Dad is different than Father," Jacob points out.

"But The Colonel is related to the baby, more strongly than the rest of us. Even if it is 'junk DNA'. It's complicated, but,,,," she says.

"You want people to think Jack is the kid's father," Jacob says with a smile. Sam nods, "And why would that be?"

Sam closes her eyes, "I don't really want to analyze that right now," she says.

He laughs.

"Hand me my baby back," she says grumpily.

"Sorry, Sammy," he says. He considers her for a while, "You're going to be a great mom."

The baby starts crying harder. She puts a finger in the baby's mouth. Jack walks in.

"What do you suppose the punishment for having a hot plate is?" Sam bites her lip nervously.

"Are you kidding? Hammond has eaten soup prepared off this hot plate," Jack says plugging it in and working on getting the bottle prepared. "I'll be out of your guy's hair in a bit," he says.

"It's ok you can stay," Jacob says.

Jack looks at Sam, "If you don't have anything to do," she says smiling.

"So I want to hear more about how this baby came to be," Jacob says.

"Asking for details about your daughter's child's conception, Jacob, dangerous territory," Jack says.

"Conception isn't the right word, but the Colonel doesn't like the more scientific ones, so we'll just not call it anything," Sam says.

"Who's going to feed Baby Girl?" Jack asks holding the bottle.

Sam holds out a hand, and Jack puts the bottle in it.

"So Sam and Daniel are drooling over an Ancient device that they know has to do with DNA. Sam asks me to lift up a panel. We all get our blood drawn and about five minutes later a cylinder drops down from the ceiling and microscopic Baby Girl here drops in…" Jack begins.

"She wasn't microscopic. A human egg can be seen by the naked eye," Sam says.

"Really?" Jack asks.

Sam nods.

"Whose egg?" Jacob asks.

"Uh…there was no DNA in the egg," Sam says.

"But whose was it?" Jacob asks.

"I don't have any idea," Sam says slowly.

"Does it matter?" Jack asks concerned.

"No," Sam says, "That egg, wherever it came from is a tiny, tiny part of her overall mass. And it didn't contribute DNA. That was all from the four of us."

"But not your egg," Jacob says.

"No, if it was Sam's egg we probably would have figured out what was going on before the baby dropped down," Jack says.

"I was just concerned…" Jacob pauses.

"No, it would have been awkward," Sam says.

"A violation," Jack says eyes smoldering.

"Anyway it didn't happen," Sam says.

"So what caused the rapid growth?" Jacob asks.

"Chemicals delivered through an artificial umbilical cord, we think. No nanites anyway. We're not sure yet how the growth is going to stop," Sam says.

"Stop? She's still growing rapidly?" Jacob says.

"Double time," Sam says handing Jack back the bottle.

"Wow," Jacob says, "Because childhood doesn't go fast enough already."

"The growth will stop when she is about two and a half," she says.

"How do you know? You don't even know what's making her grow quickly," Jacob says.

"Frazier and Mommy are going to figure it out," Jack says to the baby.

"Yeah, Dad, I forgot to mention that there is a chance the baby understands everything we say," Sam says.

"Because?" Jacob says.

"Oh, we left out the brain sucking portion of the story," Jack says. "So an hour and a half after the kid drops into the cylinder it drains out."

"Mostly on the Colonel," Sam says with a smile, which earns her a glare.

"And then that thing like the Ancient repository of knowledge comes out of the wall and copies our brains. Then a little baby head sucker attaches to this one," he says running his fingers softly across her head, "and gives her our knowledge."

"This kid has four lifetimes in her head?" Jacob asks.

"Knowledge not memories," Jack clarifies, "Which is an important distinction since we all have things we'd rather this kid didn't remember."

"Yeah, the four of you have way too much trauma for a kid to deal with," Jacob says.

"Baby Girl getting a name anytime soon?" Jack asks Sam.

"I have a suggestion for a first name. I want all of you guys to approve my choice. But I'd be honored if you selected her middle name, Sir" Sam says with a smile.

"I'd like the first and last name to know what it's going with," he says looking at her.

"Her last name is going to be Carter," Sam says. "And for a first name, I was considering someone we all know and like. Catherine. We'd call her Katie."

"I love it. Very Catholic," Jack says.

Jacob turns to Jack in surprise, "Are you practicing Catholic, Jack?"

"Somewhat lapsed," Jack says, "Twelve years of Catholic school, and I still make it to the occasional mass."

"Still making mass on a regular basis, Sammy?" Jacob asks with a twinkle in his eye.

"When I'm on world. Bet you haven't been in a while, Tok'ra don't have chapels," she says.

"You guys are Catholic?" Jack asks.

"Yeah," Sam says startled by his surprise.

"Like seriously Catholic? You're a scientist," he says.

"Right, but I had a Sister Mary something as biology teacher, too. And she took the time to show me how they weren't mutually exclusive. Besides, you are Catholic, and yet you know your constellations, and I suspect most of the 'technobabble' I say."

"Hey now, that's a rather nasty accusation to make in front of the kid," he says, "State your evidence," he says narrowing his eyes at her.

"You never cut me off until I've said everything, but you cut off Daniel right away," she says.

"I like your voice better," he defends cheekily. Then he gave an apologetic glance at Jacob as if he had forgotten the man was there. But Jacob finds the comment funny.

"There is a small chance you cut Daniel off, because he hates it and avoid cutting me off, because you know I want you to," she says.

"You want me to cut you off when you technobabble?" he says in mock surprise.

Jacob laughs.

"You know it full well, Sir, I just want you to leave me alone to solve the problems," she says.

Jack laughs. "All these years, and you should have said something."

"Riiiiiiight," Sam says.

"Alright, so maybe, I understand a tiny bit," he says holding his fingers together, "of your technobabble."

"It's been a long time since you've fooled me with your 'stupidity' act, Sir," she grins, "Daniel, Teal'c and I have a debate though, what was your college major."

"College?" Jack asks, "I think it may have been beer."

"Daniel goes for 'general studies', Teal'c thinks, 'military strategy,' my guess is 'English.'" Sam says.

Jack turns so quickly that Sam knows she's right. "I knew it, Sir," she says pointing at him.

"I can neither confirm nor deny, your accusations," Jack says.

"Don't worry, someday little Miss Katie will be able to tell me all the books her Daddy's read," she says.

"Hey now, that's cheating," he says.

"Katie is going to tell me all kinds of secrets, aren't you?" Sam says holding the baby up, and kissing her.

"I'm going to suggest something you might love or hate," Jack says, "Charlie's baby stuff?"

"I thought English majors talked in complete sentences," she replied.

"Don't go around telling people I'm an English major," he glares, "And do you want Charlie's baby stuff?"

She smiles, "I'd be honored, if it isn't weird or painful for you," she says looking right at him.

"I wouldn't have offered if it was," Jack says.

"Ok, so when should we make sure we're at her house?" Jacob asks.

"It's ok, Dad, he has a key," she says.

Jacob raises his eyebrows.

"Daniel and Teal'c have a key too, Dad," Sam says.

"It's a team thing," Jack says with a shrug.

"And so are you," Sam says to the baby.

"So Dad, you want to go to dinner?" Sam says.

Jacob raises his eyebrows, "Newborn?" he points out.

"I'll see if Daniel or Teal'c is free," she says, "you have to head back pretty soon, right? I'd like to see you first."

* * *

"Teal'c, I have two favors to ask you," Sam says.

"I accept MajorCarter," he says.

"Can you watch the baby while Dad and I go to dinner? Drop her off in a few hours at my house?" she asks.

"It would be my pleasure," he says taking the baby from her.

"I was also wondering if you like the name I picked out, Catherine?" she says.

"I believe that naming the infant after CatherineLanford will pay homage to her memory," he says.

"Last question, if I were to give the baby a Catholic christening would you come?" she asks.

"Indeed, MajorCarter, would you be willing to allow the child to undergo a Jaffa birthing celebration?" Teal'c asks.

"Does it involve any physical change to the body?" Sam asks circling her forehead.

"The Free Jaffa have modified the ceremony considerably, and they use a temporary tattoo that symbolizes freedom," Teal'c says.

"Sounds perfect," she says giving him a kiss on his cheek, "Would tomorrow be too early for the christening?"

Teal'c shakes his head.

"One last stop," she says to her father with a smile.

* * *

"Daniel," she greets as they come around the door to his office.

"Hey, Sam, where's the baby?" he asks.

"Teal'c is looking after her for a couple of hours. Daniel, I picked out a name, and I wanted you to approve it," she says.

"Sam, it's your baby, you can name it what you want," Daniel says. Jacob picks up bitterness in his voice, and slinks unobserved into the hallway. Sam notices it, and makes a mental note to thank him later.

She puts her hand on his shoulder, "Daniel, I want to have you guys make some decisions with me. You all have a role in this baby. If you don't want it…that's ok. But I'm not asking you to raise it," she says.

He looks up at her and sighs. He knows he's going to have to tell one of his teammates what's wrong, and it might as well be Sam. "Sha're wanted me to give her a baby," he says.

Sam doesn't know quite where to go from there. It doesn't feel like a complete thought, and she isn't exactly sure what the rest of the thought is, so she just waits.

"We didn't have a baby after a year of trying. I…might not be able to have a baby," he says.

Oh God, Sam thinks, he wants to take her from me.

"Daniel, you don't know that for sure. A year isn't that long. It could have been Sha're, and Ammonut healed her. You could have had problems, now gone because of the sarcophagus. But if you…I mean…" Sam is nearly in tears, but she knows…she knows that she could probably still have a baby. And if Catherine really is Daniel's only chance… "Daniel you can take her."

Daniel looks up to see the tears in Sam's eyes, and pulls her into a hug, "Sam, I didn't mean I wanted her. I'm not ready to be a father…I mean I was with Sha're. But I don't want to be a single father at this stage in my life. It's just facing a baby that is sort of, but not mine. Like Shifu, it's hard for me. But this machine. I mean if it never happens for me, maybe…"

"I'll tell you what Daniel," she says smiling at him, "If you ever decide you do want to do the whole single parent thing I'll help you. We'll go to the machine and make another super baby, ok?"

"Thanks, Sam, I'm sorry I've been acting like a spoiled toddler," he says.

"Hey, I'm a mom now, apparently I'm going to have to get used to it," she says with a grin.

"I don't think this baby is going to be any normal child," Daniel says.

"I would guess not," she says thoughtfully, "I was planning on naming her Catherine."

Daniel smiles, "Perfect."

"And I wanted to invite you to a christening tomorrow morning. Teal'c is getting up a Jaffa ceremony, complete with fake tattoo. You have any cultural ceremonies you want this kid to do?" she asks.

"I could make you endure an Egyptian Sebou, lord knows I saw enough of them as a child, but I don't think so," he says.

"What does it involve?" she asks anyway.

"Ear piercing, and jumping, rocking, and screaming," he says grimacing.

"Sound like fun," she says.

"More fun than the boy's ceremony, which involves something besides ear piercing," he says.

"Ok Daniel, you just let me know how involved you want to be in this baby's life, ok?" she says.

He nods. "Thanks, Sam."

* * *

The next morning at ten all of SG-1 plus Jacob Carter, find themselves assembled in chapel. Catherine has donned a christening gown, which was worn by Sam's mother's grandmother and down the family through her niece and nephew. The priest was willing to postpone the usual pre-Christening classes until after the christening so Jacob could attend.

"Samantha, it is good to see you," he smiles, "And look at this precious little one," he says peering at the baby. "What made you decide to adopt?" he asks.

The official paperwork declared Catherine her biological daughter, and until that moment, it had not occurred to Sam how hard it would be to explain her appearance without a pregnancy, particularly to a priest when she was unmarried.

Daniel, bless his heart, stepped in and did the lying to a priest for her, "We were on a mission in another country. And Sam found this little thing. Just a little new born, but abandoned by her parents, because she has a rare disease. A tumor on her brain that will make her grow faster than usual. It's not life threatening at all, and they are sure they can have it removed. But not right away, it would be too dangerous until she gets bigger. Of course, that won't be long. Well, Sam just picked the little thing up, and decided it must be hers."

"Of course, she gathered the rest of her team around to make sure baby girl had positive male influences," Jack adds with a wink.

"Alright, who is going to be the godfather?" the priest asks.

Sam hadn't thought of that before, and it gives her pause before Jack steps up, holding several papers. Lordy! He thought to bring his own baptismal and confirmation papers. "I guess that would be me, the other Catholic of the bunch," he says looking at Sam a little sheepishly.

As the priest looks the papers over she whispers, "Parents can't be godparents."

"I seem to remember Teal'c being the bio dad," he whispers back, "Is this ok?" he asks raising an eyebrow.

"One more lie can't hurt," she says closing her eyes and shrugging.

"And what name will she be Christened by?" the priest asks.

"Catherine…" Sam begins.

"Dorothy Carter," Jack finishes.

Sam freezes and gives him a look, "Wizard of Oz inspired?" she asks.

"I'll admit it was a happy coincidence, but I know your mom's name, Carter," he says.

She closes her eyes for a moment. "Thanks," she mutters.

"So does everyone know what to expect?" The priest asks.

"It's been awhile," since Charlie, Jack thinks, "I could use a refresher course, and Murray, and maybe Daniel has never experienced one."

"Well Sam and you," the priest nods to Jack, "will stand up at the altar. I'll ask Sam some questions, basic stuff about core Catholic beliefs. Whenever I pause, she will say, 'I do'."

Jack chokes a little "I do?" he asks.

"Yes, and then I'll ask you, the godfather, a series of questions to which you'll respond with, 'I do.'"

Jack still looks a little flabbergasted, "Sir, those are the words used in a lot of Catholic ceremonies, but if you don't feel comfortable…" Sam says.

"I could do it, Jack," Jacob says even though he's grinning a little at Jack's discomfort.

"No, I'm fine," Jack says, "So then we all make some crosses and get the kid's head wet right?" he says.

The priest nods, "and then Mom comes and lights the candle."

Mom-the word reverberates in Sam's brain making her grin.

Sam and Jack take their places next to one another at the altar. The priest begins talking. Sam tries to think about the baby in her arms, and this huge task she has just undertaken, but somehow all of her "I do's" end up aimed at Jack. When he begins he tries to aim his "I do's" at Catherine, but Catherine is after all in Sam's arms. Catherine is sleeping, and Sam's face is animated, drawing his eyes.

The priest takes the baby out of Sam's hands. He anoints her head with oil, makes the sign of the cross several times. He pours a little water over her head, and makes another cross. Jack was never particularly fond of the putting things on a baby's head before he met Jaffa. Now it bothers him just enough that he has to look away. He finds that Sam is looking away too, and she gives him a comforting smile. The priest holds the baby near Sam and she uses her thumb to press a quick cross into it. When the baby is offered to him, Jack does the same without looking at the motion of his thumb.

The priest smiles, and holds the child a bit longer talking before he puts her back into Sam's arms. Katie slept through the whole ceremony and only now lazily opens up her eyes. Katie appears reassured by the face before her, and lets out a long lazy yawn before closing her eyes again.


	4. Fatherhood

Thanks again to my beta Bruised Reed.

Sam goes to answer her door. She should probably care that she's in a bathrobe, but she doesn't. She figures it's one of her teammates, or Janet who have been checking up on her periodically. She's holding and feeding Katie as she pulls the door open with one hand.

"Pete," she says in surprise. She knew she should have told him, but it had only been two days. She hadn't begun to think of the right words to say yet.

"Sam," he says brightly, "You babysitting?"

"I'm sorry, Pete, I didn't know you were coming," she says looking down at her bathroom.

"Yeah, I didn't know you were back from your mission. I just saw your car in, and you always look great," he says giving her a quick kiss and coming into the house.

"Cute kid, whose is it?" he asks.

"Mine," she says.

He laughs. Then his eyes grow big. "You're adopting?" he says, and he's smiling.

"No," she says.

He tilts his head at her, "Sam, you weren't pregnant," he says really confused.

"No, and you don't have clearance to know this, but I don't really care. Sit down," she says sitting down and rocking the baby to sleep.

"Her name is Katie, Catherine Dorothy," she amends.

"And she's yours?" Pete asks.

"My whole team's," she says, and she sees a blink of jealousy on his face. She's tried to keep Pete and Jack apart. More for her sake then theirs. Both have been civil and friendly when they met, but…she wants to keep those regions of her life as far apart as possible. And she doesn't want to have to analyze why. "We were examining a new machine on an alien planet. It took our blood. It extracted the best trait at each gene, and inserted them into an egg."

Pete opens his mouth.

"Not my egg, my dad asked the same question," she said, "Anyway, that egg an hour and a half later was Katie."

"When did this happen?" Pete asks.

"Two and a half days ago," she says.

"Wow," he says.

"Uh, there is more," she says smiling, "She also has all of our knowledge, and she'll be growing at double time for a couple of years."

"But she'll be ok?" he asks concerned.

Sam nods.

"So, all your knowledge, that's awkward," he says.

"Luckily, it's knowledge, not memories, but it could still be awkward. I mean she's going to know a lot about us based on what she knows. Of course, she might not always know who she got the knowledge from, and sometimes it would be from more than one of us."

"So…how is it working? Are the four of you sharing her?" he asks.

"No, I'm going to raise her. They told me they are willing to help, but…" she says with a smile.

"But they are leaving you with her," he says, and she detects a slight bit of anger in her voice.

"No, that's not how it happened. I wanted her," she looks at the tiny baby in her lap to get courage, "Pete we've been dating for a few months. I don't expect you to be ok, with this instant family thing. I'd understand if you want out. This was my choice. I expected to do this as a single mom."

"I don't want out," Pete said.

"I'm probably not going to be able to go out on dates as much for awhile. Of course, the boys would take her, but…" she starts.

"You're a mom, that's going to change your priorities," he says.

"Why are you being so great about this?" he asks.

"I like you Sam," he says, "Can I hold Katie Kat?"

She nods.

He picks her up, and takes a good look at her. Her Daniel Jackson eyes focus on him, and she lets out a big sneeze. Snot covers his arm, but he doesn't even flinch.

"Hello," Pete says.

He'd actually make a great Dad, she thinks. She tries to analyze the phrasing of that sentence, as she gets him a Kleenex.

She remembers the words phantom of her father had said, "You deserve to be happy." Happy, he hadn't said content, he had said happy.

* * *

Cover stories. Something Sam had heard since before she can remember. Something Mark had heard for even longer. Something she'd been feeding Mark since she entered the Air Force. But today she didn't want to give it to him. She wished she could just tell him the truth.

"Mark," she says as he answered the phone.

"Hey, Sam what's up," he says.

"Actually, I've got some pretty big news," she says. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, "I had a baby."

There is a long pause, "You're going to have a baby?" he asks.

"No…I have one, now, right here in my arms" she says.

"You adopted?" he asks.

"No, listen. She has a tumor in her pituitary gland. Everything is fine. They are going to be able to do surgery in a couple of years. But she's growing twice as fast as a normal child. I didn't tell you before, because everything was happening so fast, and" this was the part of the lie she least wanted to tell, but it was the only way she didn't sound like a complete jerk for not telling her brother, "we weren't sure she was going to make it, so I didn't say anything until she was fine."

"Oh, my God Sam, you should have told me!" he says, "So, what about Pete? He's taking care of you right?" Sam closes her eyes. "It's not Pete's," she says.

"Right, you didn't know Pete four months ago. So what happened to the father, Sammy?" he says.

Her stomach twisted up, she should have predicted this one.

"The father?" she repeats.

"Yes," he says.

"I work with him, he's helping, but we're not together," she says.

"You work with him?" Mark repeats.

"Yes," Sam says.

"Is it your commanding officer?" Marks asks.

Geez, Sam thought, am I that transparent? "No…his name is Teal'c. He's from another country, I've worked with him for years."

"Yeah, I've heard you mention Teal'c. I would have figured you more for friends than lovers," Mark says.

"We are friends," Sam says.

"Well, he obviously knocked you up," Mark says.

"We…made an isolated mistake. Since then we've gone back to being friends," she says with a sigh.

"He knows it's his baby?" Mark asks.

"Yeah," she says.

* * *

"Is Teal'c the big black dude?" Mark asks.

"Yeah," she says.

"That will make it a bit harder to keep secret," Mark says.

"Teal'c isn't trying to hide it, everyone knows," she says.

"Have you told Pete? What am I saying, the man would notice if you were that pregnant. How come he never mentioned it to me? I've talked to him a couple of times since you two started dating," Mark says.

Great, now she was making it seem like Pete was keeping secrets from his best friend. She looked down at her daughter thinking, 'you make everything complicated, Babe.' "I asked him not to. Pete knows all about it. He's actually been remarkably accepting about the whole thing."

"That's good. Not every guy would be ok, with his girlfriend having another man's baby," Mark says.

Or three other men's baby, she thought to herself. "No, I'm lucky," she says.

"But tell me about this tumor thing, is she ok? Does it hurt? Does she need some medicine or something?" Mark asks.

"No, she's absolutely fine. She'll need surgery when she's older. But until then it's safer just to let it go. She's growing at double the rate than normal, but she's perfectly healthy," Sam repeats.

"So what caused it?" Mark asks.

"It just happened," she says.

"Not exposure to some weird deep space telemetry stuff?" Mark asks.

Great, she thinks, another reason for Mark to hate the Air Force, "No, just a chance thing, could have happened to anyone." She really hated lying.

"Listen if you need anything Sam, you let me know. When Cindy and I had Max, you were there for us. You were amazing. San Diego and Colorado Springs aren't that far apart. I'd be more than willing to help you. I know the first little bit of parenthood is pretty rough, and I never did it by myself," he says.

"I'm not really doing it by myself," she says.

"How involved is the father?" Mark asks.

"As involved as I want him to be, but it's not just him. My whole team…they kind of consider this SG-1's baby. And then there is Janet Fraizer and her daughter-Cassie's graduating in a couple of months. They have all offered to help."

"And then there is Pete," Mark says. And there is something about the way he says this she hates. He knows he's trying to be nice, trying to be practical. But she is also painfully aware of just how much this isn't Pete's baby. How glad she is that it isn't Pete's baby. How much she really doesn't want to live in the white picket fence and pretend it's Pete's baby. But she takes a deep breath, because it isn't just Jack's baby either. And she can't have Jack and the picket fence.

"Yeah, I'm pretty lucky," she says.

Mark hears something in her voice, "Are you happy, Sam?" he asks.

The answer comes before she even thinks, "Of course."

Am I? She asks herself after the phone has been hung up.

* * *

It's the fourteenth day after the child's birth, and it is time for the Jaffa ceremony. Sam is really sick of lighting candles. Jaffa tradition states that the number of candles a mother lights with a single long taper defines the length of a Jaffa's life. She tried to convince everyone that a hundred candles would be enough since Katie isn't Jaffa, and isn't likely to live longer than that. Jack however seized on to the tradition and lined up thousands of candles in a marathon method that would allow her to light as many as possible. He had been cheering her on until Teal'c had placed a big hand on each of Jack's shoulders and said, "A Jaffa keap'ta is a solemn ceremony, O'Neill."

Daniel snickers from behind the video camera which Sam suspects is more about studying Jaffa culture than about recording an important moment in his daughter's life.

After that, thankful Jack shut up. By the time the taper flickered out-412 candles later, her hand was sore.

"Would it be alright, MajorCarter, if I played the role of father in the ceremony?" Teal'c asks.

"Of course," she offers with a smile.

Teal'c makes a low bow before he take the child in his arms. "I will do this in English, not for you KatieCarter who knows many languages, but for the sake of those gathered."

Teal'c holds the child before him, facing him, "You, my daughter, are in the service of no god. The gods are being slain and you are born free. May the freedom be guarded all your life long, until at long last you die free and ascend to the place of Kheb. May you be strong, to defend your people. May you be brave to guard your people. May you be wise to hasten your people along the path to ascension. May your life be long, and filled with joy. May you be descendents be many and worthy."

He bows slowly, with her in his arms.

"See the candles lit by your mother, " he says turning her, "She has secured for you a long life. It is time now for you to give your mother a gift. Take the gold and you shall make her powerful. Take the paper, and you shall make her wise. Take the stick, and you shall make her strong." He holds the things in his giant palm before her. Katie's fist knocks all of them out of his hand.

"Ungrateful child?" Teal'c says, his voice teasing, "You refuse your mother a gift?" He takes the three things, and drops them one by one into her palm. It doesn't clench around any of them.

"Just as well young KatieCarter, you mother has these things already," Teal'c says offering Sam a smile. "What gift shall you take for your father?" he asks dropping them again unto her palm. The child again doesn't accept anything.

"And for yourself young KatieCarter?" he asks, "Will you take one for yourself?" Again they fall to the ground.

"She didn't grab anything! She's is just a baby, she can't…" Jack starts to protest feeling that Katie is being cheated.

"Most don't, O'Neill, calm yourself," Teal'c says glancing annoyed over his shoulder.

"Your mother shall choose your gift," he says. Sam steps forward uncertainly, "Which one should I pick?" she asks Teal'c.

"Which do you think most valuable MajorCarter?" he asks.

She looks down at the three objects. Her fingers waver between the stick and the paper, and she realizes the decision between these two virtues is a sort of metaphor for her own young adulthood. She picks up the paper.

"Press it into her hand," Teal'c instructs.

Sam takes the paper, and touches it lightly to Katie's palm. Katie's hand clasps around it.

"Your mother has chosen well," Teal'c says with a smile, "Cling to your wisdom."

"Now my daughter," he says, "Long ago warriors were marked by the false god they served. Now, we serve no false god, so I will mark you with the mark of freedom," he glances over his shoulder, "temporarily of course."

He dips his finger into a dark black paint, and slowly draws the symbol of a bird encircled in a sun. When he is done he kisses the tattoo, and offers her to Sam who gives her a kiss as well. He then holds the child out to Jack, and Daniel who each grace the child with a kiss.

* * *

Apparently, Sam thought grimly, Max had been an extremely well behaved child. Why hadn't someone warned her that motherhood was hell? That was certainly what the last three weeks had been. Particularly the last one since she'd returned to work. The screaming seemed to be coming from very close this time. She looked down at her lap. Damn, she hadn't even attempted to go to bed between the last two feedings. The bottle was still in Katie's mouth. Sam felt guilty, she knew you weren't supposed to do that. Choking hazard, ear infections, tooth decay. Right now she didn't care about the last one, Katie didn't have teeth yet.

She glanced at the clock. Fifty-one minutes since Katie's last feeding, an all time record. Sam tried to remember the last time she'd slept for more than forty-five minutes, and she couldn't. She mixed up a batch of fresh formula not bothering with the warming, she hadn't bothered with warming the bottles since she'd discovered when her daughter was a week old that Katie really didn't care. She holds the bottle with one hand, while checking the diaper with the other. Yes, of course a diaper change was required. When wasn't it?

She carries Katie into the nursery, and lays her down on the changing table whose bright colors proclaim its early 90's origin. She holds the bottle with one hand, and changes her with the other. A task which seemed difficult when she first attempted it, but which doesn't even require thought anymore.

Katie continues to scream. How the hell can she scream with a bottle in her mouth? Sam wonders. Katie's screaming changes pitch, and Sam jumps. The baby's face is covered with milk. Holy Hannah, Sam just fell asleep while holding a bottle for a kid on a changing table. This was beyond tired. She was a horrible mother. Katie could have fallen, she could have been seriously injured. As it was, she had milk up her nose.

"Sorry baby, sorry," she cries to Katie. "Mommy promises she wouldn't let you get hurt. I will never let you get hurt, Baby Girl, come on sweetie," she says.

* * *

"I'm coming!" Jack shouts as he bumbles down the hallway wondering who was knocking on his door at two in the morning.

"Carter!" he says.

She is sobbing, and she thrusts the baby into his arms. Then she drops some bags on the floor, and turns to go, bouncing as if she was still holding Katie.

"Carter, what the hell is going on?" he asks.

"I'm abandoning my daughter, Sir!" she shouts heading for the car.

"The hell you are! Get back here and tell me what's going on," he says.

"Is that an order, sir?" she asks turning.

"No," he says softly, "It's not an order."

She turns and walks into the house. She sits at the table and Jack prepares a bottle for Katie, "What happened?" he asks softly.

"I almost dropped her," she says, and finally the tears have stopped.

He examines the baby in his arms, "She ok?"

"Besides some milk up her nose, yeah, she's fine," Sam mutters nearly crying again, "I fell asleep while changing her. She was up on the changing table."

"When is the last time you got enough sleep?" he asks.

"How old is she?" Sam asks trying to make it sound like a joke, but it comes out hollow and pained.

"Sam, why didn't you ask for help," he says with such compassion in his voice that she looks up at him.

She begins sobbing again, "I can't do it. I can't be a mom. It's not in me, Jack. I don't know how people do this. She won't sleep for more than forty-five minutes at a time!"

"Forty-five minutes?" he asks, "most kids can go a few hours. You have been up every forty-five minutes for three weeks?"

She nods.

"Carter, no one can do that," he says. "It's not possible," he says bouncing Katie as she drinks, "You should have told us, we would have helped you."

"I'm asking for help now," she says sobbing again, "You're her godfather. You're supposed to take care of her if I can't."

"No, a godfather is supposed to take care of her if you're dead. You're not dead. But I meant it when I said I'd help you. I intend to. I'm definitely going to be taking care of her tonight, and as long as you need, up to and including forever. But what you said before…about abandoning her. I'm not accepting that. If, after a few full nights of sleep you come back here calm and collected, and tell me that again, then I'll take her. It still wouldn't be abandonment, it would be giving her to someone who loves her. But I'm not accepting this as permanent when you're this worn out. If you can sleep through her crying you should take the couch, because you really shouldn't be driving like this. But if she's going to keep you up, go home," he says.

She sniffs, "I'm sorry, Sir," she mutters standing up.

He puts his hand over hers that is still lying on the table, "It's going to be ok, Carter," he says softly.

She nods her head, but her face clearly shows she doesn't believe it. He watches her walk out of the room, and listens as she shuts the door to his house, and starts the engine of her car.

"Katie girl, what were you doing to your mother!" he explains.

* * *

"Jack have you seen Sam?" Daniel asks coming into the office Jack pretended not to know existed. The office that Teal'c and Sam knew he spent most of his on base time in since they'd known him. But an office which Daniel had only become aware of in the last couple of years.

He looks up, "No, is she ok this morning?" he is trying to make it sound casual, but he find himself really quite worried about his second in command.

"No, she didn't show up for work, and didn't call in sick," Daniel says.

"Oh shit," Jack says picking up the phone and dialing the number which is more familiar than it has a right to be based on the number of times he's called it.

"Sir?" a confused and groggy sounding voice says on the other end.

"Carter," he says breathing out relief, "You ok?"

"Yeah, what time is it?" she asks a second later her voice is fully awake, "Holy Hannah! I'm two hours late for work, why didn't someone call me sooner?"

"You're ok, you just overslept?" he asks again looking for confirmation.

"I'll be there in a little bit," she says, and he can hear her getting dressed.

"No, that's ok, you are eligible for maternity leave as well. Take the day off. Catch up on sleep," he says.

There is a long pause, "Sir, about last night…I," she begins.

"Didn't mean it right? I told you that last night. But I'm thinking we need to rethink child care for little miss super metabolism double growth. Can I come over and talk to you about it tonight after I get done working, and you get done sleeping? I'll bring the kid and some Chinese food," he says.

"Ok," she says.

"You sure you're alright?" he asks again.

"I'm fine, Katie ok?" Sam asks.

"Wonderful," he says.

"I miss her. It's not even been a day, but I…miss her," Sam says softly.

"We'll figure this out, Carter, just rest up," Jack says.

"Sam ok?" Daniel asks, more worried by Jack's face than the half of the conversation he heard.

"Tired, Katie's been waking her up every forty five minutes. Sam refused to ask for help, and nearly drove herself crazy," Jack says with a sigh, "Daniel, I know you aren't thrilled about this whole baby idea," Daniel opens his mouth to protest, "Oh, I know what you told Sam was the reason you weren't thrilled. I have no doubt that's only part of it. So if you won't be willing to do a little baby duty, I need to know now."

Daniel looks at him straight in the eye, "I'm willing."

"This isn't some misplaced sense of duty, but real willingness, because we can do it without you?" Jack asks.

"No, seriously," Daniel says.

"I haven't asked T yet, but I was thinking we will alternate between my house and Sam's. You'd stay at Sam's the nights she has the baby, and alternate feedings, and T would do the same. Or if T isn't in I can handle my nights myself. The feedings should get farther apart as time goes on. I can remember Charlie sleeping through the night at about four months, so if Katie's rapid growth means she meets milestones earlier that's only a month and a week away. Then you can go back to your bachelor life."

"I don't mind, Jack," Daniel says.

"Thanks, I'm going to go talk to T," Jack says.

"Jack, what did you think happened to Sam?" Daniel's voice stops Jack at the door. Jack turns slowly, and a glance at Daniel's eyes confirms that Daniel already knows the answer. Daniel shuts his eyes, "It's that bad?"

"Last night Sam almost dropped Katie, when Sam fell asleep while changing her. She came over to my house talking about abandoning her daughter, and how she was an awful mother…" Jack says.

"If you thought…why did you let her leave?" Daniel asks.

"I didn't think it last night, just this morning…" Jack says. "Look, I know what feeling like a failure at parenting can make a person want to do. It's just that in my case it was true," he says gruffly.

"Jack," Daniel says looking at him confused, "After all these years you still think you were a bad Dad?" Jack doesn't answer, "Well, I never knew you with Charlie. So maybe you were. But I have seen you with plenty of kids since, and let me assure you. You were great with every single one of them."

"I killed my son," Jack says.

"The hell you did," Daniel says with a genuine laugh at the end. It's the laugh that causes Jack to look at him. "What if last night Sam really had dropped Katie; and she slammed her head on something and died?"

Jack's stomach turned, and he really thinks for a second he's going to throw up. Daniel finds himself really hoping he didn't go too far.

"Would you blame Sam? Would you be telling her she killed her daughter? Would you even think it? Jesus, Jack. Charlie's death was an accident."

There is silence for a little while.

"Thanks Daniel," Jack mutters.

"Someone needs to tell you when you're being stupid," Daniel says, "Listen maybe I should go talk to Sam."

"Probably be a good plan, you did wonders for me on Abydos," Jack says quietly, "Did I ever thank you for that by the way?"

"No," Daniel smiles, "But I knew you weren't the type to say a lot of thank yous so it's ok."

"Thank you, and for today," Jack says.

"No problem. I'll go see if Teal'c is down with your plan, and visit Sam," Daniel says.

* * *

Sam wakes up to the knocking at the door and is relieved when her clock assures her it isn't six o'clock already. She would hate to think she slept through the whole day.

"Daniel," she says trying to keep the surprise and disappointment out of her voice when she opens the door.

"Sorry, I'm not Jack, but I did bring Chinese, and I have strict instructions to make sure you eat."

"I wasn't disappointed because you weren't Jack. But he promised to bring Katie," she says.

Daniel smiled, that was certainly a good sign, "Sorry, Sam. But you could do with a little break."

She lowers her head, "Did the Colonel tell you?" and Daniel sees her chin in shaking.

"Hey, it's ok," he says hugging her, "Jack told me you were so overtired you fell asleep while standing."

"I…almost dropped her," she says hanging her head lower.

"Sam, if I fell asleep and dropped her, what would you think of me?" he asks. She looks up at him. "You're only mistake was not asking for help," Daniel adds.

"The Colonel lost a child already, I almost…" she stops.

"Hold it, you think Jack is mad at you?" Daniel asks his voice showing his disbelief.

"If he isn't he should be," she says.

"He's not, and he shouldn't be. Sam, do you blame Jack for Charlie's death?" he asks.

She shakes her head.

"He does. Same with you. You are the only one who thinks you did something wrong here," he says.

"Thanks, Daniel," she says.

He takes a deep breath, "You know the first Abydos mission? Jack didn't plan on coming back." Her eyes are focused on him, and he thinks she might have guessed this before, although no one has ever said it aloud, "He didn't want to live after Charlie. Today when he found out you didn't go to work it scared the crap out of him."

Sam stands up, turning so she isn't facing him. Every muscle in her body was tense. "I'm not suicidal. Maybe I should be…"

"No, you have a daughter who needs you," Daniel says, "And you have a lot of people who love you. And you are, like Jack likes to say, a national treasure. I just need to know if you're ok. We don't want to lose you."

She turns and sees his serious eyes.

"I always thought I could be a good mother," she says, "I just hate it that I'm not."

"You are a good mother, Sam. A good mother forced to deal with an extraordinarily needy child. You're good at everything. Scientist, soldier, mother," he says.

Sam sighs.

"Do you want to hear Jack's plan?" Daniel asks. Sam doesn't answer. "Ok, well, he thinks it would be best if we split into teams. You and I, and Jack and Teal'c. I'd stay at your house every other day, and we'd alternate feedings. The other nights, Katie would stay at Jack's and they'd tag team."

"I appreciate it, but I can take care of her," Sam says.

"You know we're only offering, because we love her, right? You miss her since last night? How do we feel? We'd love to help you out for the next month or however long until she can sleep through the night. We're her fathers'," he says.

She smiles at him. "Are you a really good liar?" she asks.

"Actually yes, but I'm not lying now," he says.

She smiles.

"So…" he says.

"Ok," she smiles.

"And I've seen you with Katie, you're a good mother," Daniel says.

"I don't have a clue what I'm doing," Sam says.

"What? You don't know how to raise an alien child no earthling has ever dealt with before? Huh? Imagine that," Daniel says.

She nudges him. "You're a good friend," she says.


	5. Honesty

Thanks again to my awesome beta Bruised Reed without whom your eyes would fall out from having to see my errors.

On the second night Jack and Teal'c take Katie, Pete asks Sam out on a date. The new rotation has been working well. Sam doesn't feel like she's a foot beyond her rope, and the boys seem more cheerful as well.

Pete's acting really giddy, and Sam's afraid she knows why. After dinner they go on a walk through the park, and he does it. He goes down on one knee. He makes a speech about loving her (something he's never said until right then), and loving Katie. He talks about the dream house he knows she wants, and the life they'll live together. He talks about adopting Katie, and having more kids. He's offering something she really thought was going to make her happy.

But it isn't making her happy. Not even close. It's causing her to feel claustrophobic and boxed in. She's having trouble concentrating on his words, and working really hard not to transpose some else's face onto his head. She can't marry him when she's in love with someone else. He deserves more. He moved across the state and switched jobs for her. He was willing to marry her after she decided to raise a baby she had with three other men. He never even batted an eye when she told him Daniel would be staying at her house every other night. The man was a saint. And he deserved way better than her.

"I'm so sorry, Pete," she says.

He claps the box shut, "I knew it was too early. Couldn't help but give it a shot though," he says with a sad smile. A smile which is ever so slightly self-effacing. A smile which reminds her just enough of the man she does love. "I guess we'll just save this for 'someday'"

"That wouldn't be fair to you," Sam says looking at him.

He looks panicked, "I'm sorry I asked too early, please don't let this ruin things," he whispers.

"Pete, you deserve so much better than me," she says with a sad smile.

"It can't get much better than you," he says.

She is crying, "You deserve someone who is going to love you more than anyone else in the universe," she says.

"You think I'm jealous of Katie Kat?" he asks.

She closes her eyes, "She is not the one you should worry about. I never should have dated you. I knew before we met, that I loved him. But I just thought…I thought I could be happy with someone else. I really thought I could love you enough that I would stop loving him. But that was never fair to you."

And looking at his face she knew that a part of him always knew. "You can't have him," he says flatly.

It isn't really a question, but she answers it anyway, "Regulations."

"So what, you're going to quit your job for him?" Pete asks. She shakes her head, "Ask him to quit?" He gets no response, "No, you're just going to spend the rest of your life waiting for a day that will never come. Maybe that is good enough for you, but what about Katie Kat? She deserves a father."

"She has three fathers, Pete," Sam says.

"Right, three fathers. I'm talking about someone willing to marry her mother and make a family. You going to make her wait forever?" he says. "I will marry you Sam. I will love you. I will love her. We will be a family."

She closes her eyes for a moment. It's a good offer, and she does consider it. But she knows what her answer has to be. "And I will never stop wishing you were him. You deserve better. You are too good of a guy for someone to settle for, Pete. I refuse to treat you like that. I'm sorry that I already have. But it's better to screw up for a few months than a lifetime. I'd hate myself if…if I kept hurting you."

Pete turns part way away from her, "You say I deserve better. Sam you deserve better than waiting forever." Pete starts back to the car, and Sam follows. He drives her home without another word. As he pulls into her driveway, he makes a move like he is going to get out to get her door. Sam stops him from getting out of his car. She leans over and kisses him.

"Goodbye Pete, and I am sorry," she says.

Once in the house she picks up the phone and dials without looking. "Janet?" she sniffs, "Yeah, and bring the wine."

* * *

"Carter," Jack says brightly as she opens the next morning, Sam flinches. He pauses, "Are you hung over, Major?"

"Not a work day, Sir," she responds rubbing her temple.

"I wasn't judging, just surprised. I mean, from what I've seen it would take a lot to make you hung over unless it's that drink on P…" he begins teasing.

"Hand me the baby," she says crabbily holding out her hands.

"I can take care of her longer, even do an extra day," he says.

"I'm fine," Sam says.

"So you and Pete must have had a good date," he says inviting himself in.

"Well, he proposed," Sam says slowly looking carefully at Jack as she talks. Damn his poker face. No idea what's going on inside that brain of his.

"Congratulations," he says evenly.

"Then we broke up," she says with a sigh.

"Katie a factor in that?" he asks quietly.

"No, it was a totally selfish choice. If I was thinking about my daughter I could have secured her a good dad last night," she says.

"She's got dads galore," Jack says with a smile, "Now good or not would be debatable…"

"Yeah," Sam closes her eyes, "But a full time dad would be good for her. I could have done it for her, but it wasn't fair for Pete. He deserved love."

Well, that surprised Jack. "He told you he didn't love you _during_ the proposal?" Jack's eyes look furious.

"The opposite," she says.

Oh, Jack thinks his lips round in surprise. But Sam isn't looking at him so she doesn't catch it.

"So then you sat and got drunk by yourself?" he asks.

"No, that's what Janet is for," Sam says.

"Ugh," the doctor says emerging from the guest room.

"Morning," Jack says louder and higher than strictly necessary.

Janet glares at him. She knows exactly what he's doing.

"Doc, are you aware of the effects of alcohol?" Jack says cheerily.

"Says the former smoker, make yourself useful and make me coffee," Janet grumbles.

Jack tilts her head at her, "Who is the ranking officer?" he asks her playfully

"Medical officers can override any officer in medical matters. Trust me Colonel, this is a medical matter," Janet says.

"She gets bossier when she's hung over," Jack says to Sam.

"You should hear her when she's drunk," Sam says.

"Where is your daughter, Doc?" Jack asks.

"She's eighteen, she can stay alone one night," Janet says laying her head down on the table.

"Wouldn't want to corrupt her, eh?" Jack says.

Suddenly Sam's eyes go wide, "You remember last night?" she asks Janet.

The doctor lifts up her head and gives her a wide grin, "Yes, Sam, I'm never forgetting a word of that. It was a very unSamlike speech," Janet grins.

"Including the swear to secrecy?" Sam asks biting on her lip.

"Scouts honor," Janet says holding up three fingers above her head.

"What exactly did you talk about?" Jack asks.

"Sam's horrible taste in men," Janet says.

"Janet!" Sam explains.

"That was before the swear to secrecy Sam. And what came after the swear to secrecy is not really as secret as you think. I already knew. Hell, pretty sure half the base knows," Janet says.

"They do not," Sam says hands on hips.

"I could settle this, if you girls would let me in on the secret," Jack says with a grin.

"Does he know?" Sam asks pointing to him.

"Of course he knows! Don't you know?" Janet says.

"I'm not sure," Sam says.

Janet rolls her eyes.

"If I know, it wouldn't hurt to tell me," Jack says with a grin.

"Yes, it would," Janet says, "Now where is that coffee Airman?"

"Airman? I haven't been an Airman in decades," Jack mutters.

"That word makes people jump at work," Janet says with a shrug.

"Coffee me too please," Sam says with a grin.

"I am a Colonel or a slave?" he mutters.

"Both?" Sam asks.

"You're lucky I like you," he mutters.

"Is she ever," Janet mutters.

* * *

Crap. Sam thinks glancing at her cell phone. Mark's number. It's been two days since she broke up with Pete, she should have guessed this was coming.

"Hi," she says.

"How's the baby?" he asks.

Does he know? She wonders.

"She's great, getting bigger." Sam says.

"How's Pete?" Mark asks.

Yeah, he knows.

"Pete and I broke up," she says closing her eyes.

"Why?" and she's surprised at how compassionate Mark's voice sounds. She bites back the sarcastic remark she was about to make.

"I didn't love him," she says.

"Maybe in time," Mark says.

"I love someone else," she cuts him off.

"Katie's father?" Mark sounds hopeful.

"No," she says softly.

"Your commanding officer?" Mark says guesses again.

She sighs.

"Sam, are you going to wait forever for him?" Mark asks.

"If necessary," she says.

"Sam…" he says.

"I'm done. I have a pattern. I pick a guy. I date him until he dies or goes nuts. I'm done. This time I did the hurting. I didn't want to hurt him. But…I would have hurt him more if I kept….You shouldn't marry someone if you're in love with someone else. It's just…stupid," she says.

"You're right, Sam. I'm sorry. I wish…isn't there anything you can do?" he says.

"Not unless one of us gets another job," she says.

"Maybe that's something you should consider," he says.

"Your Air Force phobia is showing," she teases.

"Ok, so make him quit. It's too bad you didn't have a baby with that teammate, bet he'd quit then," he teases.

"No he wouldn't," and her voice sounds a little too honest.

Long moment of silence. Sam shuts her eyes. "Sam…you sound like you had a baby with your CO," he pauses, "Sam have you ever been pregnant before?"

Great, now her brother probably thinks she aborted Jack's baby or something. She's going to have to tell him the truth. "No," she says, "Katie is his."

"Honey, I've seen pictures of Katie," he pauses, "Oh, my God, Katie isn't yours?" he asks, "That explains why you didn't tell me you were pregnant. Sammy, you're raising a kid the guy you love had with another woman?"

"No," she says, taking a deep breath, "Ok, you're a military brat. What's my job Mark?"

"Something you can't really tell me about," he says.

"I knew you didn't believe 'deep space telemetry'," she says. She takes a deep breath, "I can't tell you what I really do, but I think you'll be willing to accept I deal with stuff way beyond the ordinary. I'm thinking, I could trust you to not push me to tell you more if I told you one thing I'm not supposed to."

"Yeah, Sammy," he says.

"Ok, I can't explain how. But my three male teammates and I made a baby that is a genetic mix of all of us, by accident, and without having sex with one another. Also without the pregnancy. She doesn't have a brain tumor, but she is growing fast. We don't know why, but her instruction manual says it will stop when she's a little over two, and looks like she's over four."

"Sam, you don't have to lie to me. I'm a big boy. I'm aware of the fact that you've had sex," Mark says.

"Good, because I have, but that isn't how I ended up with Katie," she says.

"You can't be serious," Mark says.

"I am, very serious," she says, "She has his smirk. I know month old babies don't normally smirk, but Katie does, and it's the Colonels smirk. And she's definitely got Daniel's eyes, but the way she uses them. The intensity. It's all Colonel."

"It's got to kill you," Mark says.

"It would kill me if there wasn't the Colonel in Katie."

"So is Katie really ok?" Mark asks.

"We're sort of out of our experience level here, but as far as we know she's fine," Sam says.

"How do you accidently make a baby?" Mark asks.

"I can't give you the details," Sam says.

"Test tube baby?" Mark asks.

"Big ass test tube," Sam says.

"Sam, it means a lot that you told me the truth," Mark says.

"You're my big brother," she says. "Also, I'm not quite as related to her as most parents. Most parents share 50% of their DNA with kids. I only share 25% with Katie."

"Right, more people to divide it between, your CO?" he asks.

"The Colonel is the most related to her, sharing 35%, of her DNA," she says.

"I know you've said your teammates are involved. How involved is Jack," Mark begins.

"He's there for her, a lot," she says, "More than the others. He's her godfather."

* * *

The problem with working at the SGC is that you start to view death as temporary. You think someone is gone, and then they walk through the Stargate, or end up naked in someone's office, or get out of a sarcophagus, or a million other ways they've come back from the dead.

Most people who lose someone they love have denial. Imagine the denial of someone whose seen the dead rise again and again.

"Damn it Janet! Wake up!" Sam screams.

"MajorCarter," Teal'c knows that soft answers are better at getting someone to calm down than screaming.

"Get me the healing device. God, Janet would have it to me already. Where is the healing device?" Sam shouts.

"Sam, you don't know how to use it," Daniel says.

"Get it to me, and I'm going to try," Sam says.

Teal'c hands it to her. Daniel gives him a dirty look.

"It's not lighting up, who broke it?" Sam demands, "Who broke the healing device," she screams.

Teal'c grabs her, and pulls her away from Janet's bedside. "MajorCarter, calm yourself," he says.

"Someone has to do something," Sam pleads.

"She's dead, Sam," Daniel says bending down and looking into her eyes, "Janet is gone. I watched her die."

"I've watched **you** die Daniel. More than once!" Sam shouts.

Daniel takes her hand, and touches it to Janet's arm, "Cold. Sam, a staff blast hit her in the heart. Even if we got her into a sarcophagus right after it happened, she still wouldn't have made it. That hand device is not going to work. I was right there, and there was no ascended glow. No miracle that time."

"Why not?" she says collapsing. Teal'c goes down with her holding her. "Why not this time? We always get a miracle! Why doesn't Janet get a miracle? She gave enough of them! She handed them out the infirmary door, for God's sake! Why can't she get one little miracle? Damn it."

* * *

Cassie knew one day this would happen. Actually, it happened every couple of months. Someone from SG-1 or her mother or General Hammond comes to her school with that face.

It's Daniel this time.

She sits down in his passenger seat and neither talk for a second.

"Who?" she finally asks.

"Cassie," he says, "It's your mother."

"What happened?" she asks.

"Staff blast," he says.

"Arm? Leg?" she asks, but Daniel isn't responding.

"Is she ok?" Cassie demands.

"No," he says shaking his head.

"What do you mean no?" Cassie asks, "That's not how this is supposed to go. You're supposed to say she's going to be fine. You're supposed to say you're doing everything you can. You're supposed to say it was touch and go for a while, but she's fine now."

"Cassie," he says trying to draw her into a hug.

"No, try it again!" she says.

"I am so sorry, Cassie, Janet died," Daniel says.

Cassie starts to cry.

"Cassie, I am so sorry," he says, "I'm going to take you to the SGC now, ok?"

"Everyone else?" she asks staring out the windshield.

"Jack's hurt, but he's going to be ok. Everyone else is ok," Daniel says putting the car in gear.

"Why didn't anyone try to help her?" Cassie sobs.

He takes the car out of gear, "I tried Cassie. I wish I could have brought her back to you Cassie. You don't deserve this much loss."

"I'm sorry," Cassie says staring out the window.

* * *

"Where is Sam?" Cassie asks when they get to the SGC.

"I don't think you should see Sam," Daniel says.

"I thought you said she wasn't hurt?" Cassie says concerned.

"She's fine physically," he says, "although I guess you did see her after Jolinar."

Cassie closes her eyes, "I was with her after you ascended, much worse than Jolinar."

Daniel looked at her confused somehow; he still can't believe someone would waste much time missing him, "I'll bring you to her."

They've moved Janet's body, so the only occupant of her former room is Sam. Curled in a corner. When Daniel opens the door and Cassie walks through, Sam doesn't even look up. Cassie gets on the floor next to her.

"Cassie," Sam says holding her, hugging her, rubbing her back and her hair. Trying to touch her as much as possible.

Cassie sobs softly.

"Cassie," Sam says, "I promised your mother…if anything should ever happen to her…"

"I don't need someone to take care of me. I'm eighteen," she says.

"You still need someone. You've got a month of high school left. Summer breaks, Christmas break, just because random trips. Someone to be grandma to your kids. Someone to call up and tell them when you have a bad day, or a really good day, or just because. I will take care of you," Sam says.

"I don't need…" Cassie repeats.

"You are the biggest piece of Janet I have left," Sam says. "I want you. I wanted you back then too, but I couldn't give you what you needed. I let Janet take you, because I thought it was your best chance of never having to do this again. Damn it! I was more likely to die. I was trying to protect you from this!" She sobs so hard she can't finish.

"Sam," Cassie says rubbing her back, "You, me, Katie, we'll be ok."

"I should have protected you. I should have saved her," Sam says.

"You couldn't do it, Sam. You couldn't," Cassie says.

"I love my Cassie," Sam mutters stroking her hair.

* * *

Jack knocks on the door. No one answers. He's not actually supposed to be out of bed. He doesn't give a crap. Teal'c has to sleep now days. That greatly increases his chances of escape from the infirmary. Of course, escape is going to be easy now that Janet is gone. God. She was a damn good doctor. Only person on the base worth a mental spar besides his team and the General.

He pushes the door open. Janet's body is gone. He knew it would be. But even an empty bed can give closure.

"Oh for crying out loud," he mutters seeing Cassie and Sam tangled up on the floor next to one another. Both are asleep.

He lifts Cassie up, and places her on the bed. Then he puts Sam next to her. He brushes his fingers through Cassie's hair. He turns to leave when he hears Sam whisper, "I love you." He turns around, but her eyes are closed and her breathing is even.

Sam learned to pretend to sleep when she was a little girl. It had always been a useful avoidance technique. She'd used it to avoid first chores and then work during a mission more than once. It was useful now to pretend she hadn't said something stupid. She'd meant the words for Cassie. She had been almost asleep, and didn't know Jack entered the room. Until the words were half out of her mouth. But she had to hide it, because it was true for him too.

She didn't fool Jack. She never had. He knew when she was faking by the tension in her jaw line. He leans over and gives her a light kiss on her forehead. "I love you, too, Carter," he whispers.

Then he goes back to his hospital bed. Best to avoid angry Jaffa.

* * *

"Sir," she says entering his room, "I'm sorry I didn't come see you yesterday. I should have."

"It's ok. I'm getting released today. No big deal and you had a lot to deal with," he says.

She looks away, "I'm taking Cassie. I promised Janet. I know I should have asked you. I'm hogging SG-1's daughters. But I already promised her…"

"Janet told me years ago," he smiles, "Those girls belong together. Again, I'm willing to help."

"Cassie told me once you were more of a dad to her than her own father," Sam says, "So just keep being who you are."

"Sam, why did I live when she died?" he asks.

She knows he doesn't mean the practical real reason. He knows about the vests. And he's probably pretty pissed Janet didn't have one. "First time with survivors-guilt, Sir?" she says sarcastically. She's using his typical ways of dealing with grief-humor.

"Nope," he says, "It's as common as concussions and knee injuries."

"Not your fault, Sir. I know you know that," she says.

"Knowing that is squat. Believing it, now that would be something," he mutters.

"How can you know, and not believe?" she asks.

"Ever read C.S. Lewis?" he asks.

"I read Narnia to Cass," she says.

"Mmm…He was afraid of air-planes. He knew they could get him there safely, but he didn't believe it. Knowledge is academic; belief is sitting your ass on the plane."

"You read C.S. Lewis?" she asks looking at him carefully.

"More lapsed from church, than lapsed from being Catholic," he says.

"Whereas I'm not lapsed from the church at all, but am lapsed from being Catholic," she says.

"I thought all that Sister Mary something talk was for the benefit of Jacob," he says.

"We've spent a big chunk of our adult lives trying to talk people out of believing in false Gods," Sam says, "And the things we've seen…How can you believe?" she says looking at him.

"You've spend the biggest chunk of your adult life talking people out of believing in false Gods. I'm older than you. I fought atheist communists for years before I fought Gou'ald. I know that bad people come with and without religion. And I have seen a lot of awful stuff. But Carter, I've seen a hell of a lot of miracles. How many times should we have never made it back through the gate, and we come home without a scratch? And if I'm wrong, I'm going to keep staying wrong. Because I'll be damned if I could have crawled out of the desert with a busted head or survived POW prison camp or Ba'al's torture chamber without faith."

"If there is a God. why the hell didn't Janet live?" Sam asks.

"This your first time with survivor-guilt, Carter?" he asks sarcastically.

She leans her head against his shoulder.

"I'm glad you are ok, Sir," she says.


	6. Cabin

"Carter, we've got two weeks leave. I am going to the land of 10,000 lakes, one of which belongs to me. You should come," he says with a wide grin.

"I would love to Sir, but I have a lot of work to do," she says.

"Can I take Cass?" he asks.

She asks staring at him for a second. She knows that's his way of saying Cass really needs this. "No, I'll go. It would be good for everyone. Kate is old enough that she only wakes up once a night, if at all. It would be good for all of us to get away."

Jack smiles, "You're going to my cabin?"

"Yes, unless you want to retract the offer," Sam says.

"Why would I do that?"

"Let's be honest, you never thought I'd accept," she says.

"I knew you would this time," he says with a grin.

* * *

Sam finds herself wondering exactly where the line between sullen grieving teenager and catatonic would lie. Kate starts to fuss and Cass mixes and hands her a bottle without even looking at her. Sam looks back from the front seat and opens her mouth to say, "Are you ok?" but remembers how much she hated that when people asked after her mom died.

"We're here because we're here because we're nowhere else," Jack says with a wide grin.

Sam tries to give him a usual smirk, but it turns out as more of a grimace.

Somehow she knew exactly what his cabin would look like. She's never been here, or seen a picture, or even heard much of a description, but it was exactly like she thought.

There were three small bedrooms which consisted of beds of various and a dresser. There was one bathroom with 1970's tiling. There was a large room consisted of an outdated kitchen, a quaint checkered table and a hodgepodge of leather and wicker chairs none of which matched a single other piece of furniture.

"It's nice, Sir," she says.

He examines her face, "That wasn't sarcastic?" he says in surprise.

"No, Sir," she says.

"Carter?" he says looking at her luggage, "You didn't bring a computer."

"You don't have internet," she sates plainly.

"But you didn't bring a computer, what are you going to do?"

"Fish, I was told we would fish," she says.

"Crap," she hears Jack mutter.

* * *

"You actually like fishing?" Jack asks in surprise the next morning.

"No, luckily that is not what we're doing," Sam says, "What we are doing is sitting on lawn chairs staring at a lake."

"Praying our daughter comes out of her room," Jack says.

"How do we help Cassie?" Sam asks.

He sighs, "If I knew I'd do it."

"Sir, your parents?" Sam asks. He doesn't respond right away. "I don't have a right to ask. But I'm trying to draw on my memory of my Mom's death to help her, and I don't know anything about your family."

"I'm a freak as far as members of SG-1 are concerned," Jack says, "Both of my parents died of natural causes at a decent age."

"When my Mom died I was mostly angry," Sam pauses, "If she was angry I could help her. I don't know what to do with…"

He takes a breath, "Depression. Having to bribe yourself to get out of bed. Lethargic. Giving up. I've been there," he pauses. "Let's have a dance."

"What?" Sam asks looking at him as if he's just flipped his lid.

"You heard me, Cassie loves dances," Jack says.

"I think she mostly loves dances, because of the boys," Sam says.

Jack gives her a look which tells her quite plainly what he thinks of THAT idea.

"Ok, dance," she says.

* * *

"Cass," Sam says rubbing the teenager's back as she lays face down on her bed.

"I'm not hungry. I don't want to go fishing or hiking or shopping. I think I've covered everything, so you can go away now," Cassie says not raising her hands from the bed.

'"You're going to come dance with me young lady," Jack says.

"Dance?" Cassie says turning her head off the pillow a little bit, if only to give him a look of disbelief.

"Sure, you can't leave an old man hanging," Jack says.

"No thanks," Cassie murmurs pulling the covers over her face.

"You leave me no choice," Jack says lifting her up. She lets out something between a laugh and a protest as he carries her downstairs. The main room of the cabin is decorated with Christmas lights and toilet paper. There is a fire in the fire place, even though Jack had scoffed at Sam the first night when she'd asked if she could start a fire.

"An indoor fire in April?" he'd asked in such a way that implied she just asked him to write a letter with his toes (actually, he'd probably be excited about that challenge).

Cassie's mp3 player is set to shuffle, and playing on the speakers. Jack sets her down, and begins to do the most absurd dance he knows how to do. She can't help but laugh. After the laugh she makes a grimace.

"It's ok to be happy," Jack says wiggling his butt, "Janet would like you to be as happy as possible."

"May I cut in," Sam says tapping Jack's elbow.

He nods his head. Then he goes to where Kate is laying on her belly on the floor. He bows low and says, "May I have the pleasure of this dance?" before he picks her up, and starts doing an exaggerated swing thing with her all around the room.

When Kate falls asleep hours later Cassie volunteers to put her to bed. "Well, I got to keep these feet warm for when Cassie comes back," Jack says offering Sam his hand.

The song ends just then, and a slow dance comes on. Before Sam can pull back and blush she finds herself in Jack's arms for a slow dance. He smiles his self-effacing smile. Sam thinks about how much she loves this man. Never a safe thought, but particularly not now. Their mouths are already closer together than they usually get, and are moving closer. Sam is reminded of two moons. They can rotate around a planet forever, it's only when they get a certain distance apart when they are suddenly affected by gravity. That's what this is like. They are finally close enough they can't ignore gravity anymore.

"Oh geez!" Cassie explains, "Sorry guys!" zipping out of the room

Sam and Jack spring apart so quick that Sam finds herself thinking she hasn't acted like that since she was a teenager and her Dad interrupted her first kiss.

Jack closes his eyes, "I'm sorry Sam," he whispers.

"It was me at least as much as you. I'd better go thank Cassie. She kept us out of a lot of trouble," Sam says.

Jack nods.

* * *

Cassie turns when Sam comes into the room.

"You should have just told me," Cassie says, "It would have…"

"Nothing is going on between us," Sam insists.

"You were about a centimeter away from a kiss," Cassie says.

"And you saved us from courts martial," Sam says.

Cassie rolls her eyes, "You are telling me the two of you have NEVER done ANYTHING?"

"If you don't count alien viruses and hugs when someone dies, then yes," Sam says.

"I get that it's against the rules. But are you telling me you've never broken the rules?" Cassie asks.

Sam sighs, "It's not that simple. I actually understand the reason for the rules. You can't have favoritism in the field. Every person's life has to be equal." Sam thinks back to the words that General Hammond said to her when he'd asked her to do the eulogy and Janet's funeral. As much as you try to view everyone as equal you will always favor some people above others.

"You're crazy if you don't already think Jack favors you. Your whole team, above everyone else," Cassie says, "But especially you."

Sam looks at her silently.

"Seriously, that man would sacrifice a thousand marines to keep you safe," Cassie prompts.

"The Colonel has his own set of morals," Sam says smiling, "It's quite simple and eloquent. It goes like this. 'The good guys are anyone who has saved my life, is under twenty, or has saved the life of someone in the first two groups. The bad guys are anyone who has ever done even the tiniest thing to upset, annoy, or hurt anyone in this group. The people I shot are anyone who threatens anyone in the good guy group.'"

Cassie giggles, "Yeah, that is pretty much Jack. Well, you're in the good guy group. A hundred times over, so what would it hurt to…?"

"Maybe you're right. I know that he would do anything to save me…anyone in the good guy group. But it's not quite the same. If we ever did get together he would get so overprotective, I'd want to zat him. And being a woman in the Air Force is bad enough without having to hear whispers that I've slept my way to the top. I have to hear enough of those whispers already. Both about what the Colonel and I have supposedly done, and because my Dad's a general. If I actually dated him? It would only be a matter of time before we got caught, and both of our careers would be over."

"There are a lot of civilian scientists at the SGC," Cassie says, "many who go through the gate."

"I know," Sam says crinkling her forehead, "And don't think I haven't considered it. But I'm not sure I can live with being the kind of girl who gives up her life, or a chunk of her life for a guy. I'm not sure that we'd even have a future. I mean it's one thing to sit there and flirt, but what if I showed up at his doorstep saying I'd quit the Air Force, and he was like oh crap? What if we did date, but found out we had nothing in common and ended up breaking up in two months?" She smoothed some of Cassie's hair behind her head, "It's better this way, Cass."

"Better this way?" Cassie says. "You guys have been lecturing me about how I should go on living. Why don't you? If you can't be with Jack, why not find someone you can?"

"Been there, done that…going to focus on my daughters for a while," Sam says pulling her close, "You know I love you right Cassie?"

"I love you too, Sam," Cassie says.

"I have been thinking about switching jobs. Not out of the Air Force, but maybe out of Cheyenne Mountain," Sam says thinking this would be as good a time to discuss this as any. "I was thinking of going to Area 51," she says.

Cassie looks at her, "This wouldn't have anything to do with the closeness that particular location has to Eastern New Mexico University?" she asks sarcastically.

"I know it was only number three on your list, Cass, but I think it would be good for you to have some family around for a while," Sam says.

"I am flattered you're willing to give up you career for me, and not the man you are clearly in love with," Cassie says teasingly, "But it is unnecessary. I've decided to go with number 8 on my list."

"Eight?" Sam says clearly trying to remember.

"University of Colorado," Cassie says.

"Two and half miles away? You sure Cassie, because I'll move…" Sam begins.

"I'd already decided before Mom died. And actually they have a branch in Colorado Springs, so I could stay there for the first year. If I mean…if it's ok that I live with you," Cassie says suddenly tentative in her speech.

"If it's ok?" Sam explains pulling her into a hug, "Of course it's ok." She pulls away from the hug after several minutes, "but only if it is really and truly what you want. Is it?"

Cassie nods her head.

"But I was still thinking of taking a research position for a few years. That way I would have more regular hours," Sam says.

"No way are you giving up the gate for me!" Cassie explains in horror.

"No, I wouldn't be giving up the gate for you," Sam says, "At least not completely for you. There is Kate to consider. I feel like I've been selfish risking my life when someone depends on me and now two someones depend on me."

"You don't get it. The whole thing about me staying home. It means I can help with Kate. When you're off world, or working late or whatever, I can babysit. And if anything should," Cassie looks away, "I mean I'd take her."

Sam laughs a little softly, compassionately, "Oh, Cassie, it means a lot to me. But Kate is not your responsibility. You are not her mom. I am. It's my job to take care of her. When I go off world, if I go off world, she'll stay with Hammond or day care, just like always. You're old enough you can stay by yourself, but I do not expect you to raise my daughter for me. And if…if something were to happen to me she has three fathers in line to take her. That one downstairs would be first in line."

"Oh, I know that, but I know you and Mom… you had a deal about what would happen if all of SG-1…died. That's what I meant," Cassie says softly.

Sam pulls her closer, "I really hope we don't leave you that alone. But I still wouldn't expect you to take her. I mean, you should be doing teenage things, not raising a baby."

"I'm not a child. I'm grown up," Cassie says sounding slightly offended.

Sam pulls back and looks at her eyes, "I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but honey, no you are not. When I was eighteen I thought I was all grown up as well. But I was not even close. In fact I probably did more growing up my first couple years in the Academy than any other time in my life besides right after my mom died. I was fourteen, and I lost a lot of childhood. My dad…he didn't take the time to shield me from things. Or didn't know how, I don't know. Anyway, I ended up doing more than I should have. More than I had to. I grew up too fast. You're eighteen. Most of what I ended up doing at fourteen, you can already do. You are certainly a better cook than I was," she says earning a smile. (Mostly because Cassie is one of the few people on the planet that knows Sam actually can cook.) "But I don't want you to have to grow up faster, because of Janet's death. I want you to finish growing at a nice normal protected rate, without the added responsibility of a baby. Ok?" she asks.

Cassie looks at her carefully, "Ok, I won't take on extra babysitting duties. I will party like a college student, on two conditions. One: I get to take care of Kate if SG-1 all dies. I feel like I'd be repaying a debt my mom owes you. Two: you keep going through the gate."

Sam sighs, and kisses her forehead, "I can accept those conditions. I'll change my will when I get home, on one condition. You don't party too hard."

"Deal," Cassie says.

* * *

Jack wonders exactly why this conversation is taking so long. He peeks into the room Cassie is using. It used to be Charlie's room. In fact, the closet still contains a few odds and ends that Charlie forgot up here over the years. Things Jack had never quite been able to bring himself to throw away. It also contains a twin bed. On which his second in command and not-really-legally-at-all-but-pretty-much daughter are stretched. He thinks they are both asleep, and is about to close the door when he notices, that Sam is stroking Cassie's hair.

Sam turns to grin at him, "Cassie is staying at home for college for a year," she whispers.


	7. Sacrifice

As always a big thank you to Bruised Reed.

Jack gives another glance at the Ancient Repository of Knowledge.

It only takes him a second to make the decision, but it's a busy second. Jack thinks back to his recent trip to the park. Cassie was playing with the dog he gave her seven years ago. Katie was crawling off the blanket despite all of Sam's efforts. Katie had been so desperate to find a tree or person or anything to pull herself into a standing position on so she could fall down again. Sam was laughing at the constant meaningless babble Katie has been making ever since she reached three and half months (looking like she's seven months). He thinks of Sam too. He tries to stop himself, but then doesn't. He lets himself for a minute think of the sunlight making her blond hair look like a halo. Of the way she thought so loudly, and giggled so quietly. He would do anything to protect her.

He thinks about Daniel, and how much he doesn't want that man to die. Again. He thinks about Teal'c, and the fact that Teal'c doesn't even get to choose to make this sacrifice. Then he thinks about all the Jaffa, and humans, and a whole galaxy depending on him.

Jack gives Daniel his baseball cap, and lowers his head into the machine.

* * *

Damn it! Sam curses and she and Teal'c lift the Colonel between them. She should have stopped him. She could have. She could have done it herself. Tried to hold him down. But did she have the right? If one man is willing to die on behalf of his world, what right has she to say no?

Could she say no, because I love you though I can never have you? No, because I don't want to raise my daughters in a world without you? No, because I can't live without you?

* * *

He opens the door, and Sam is standing there bouncing Katie in her arms. She's usually still and stiff when she's nervous. But he knows she's still nervous even when her usual signs are gone.

"Sir," she says. One word, he thinks, and it can mean everything from I love you to I am contemplating exactly how to kill you. It can be insubordinate or respectful, sympathetic, or condemning. And never once, has he had to wonder what that word means from Samantha Carter's lips, until today.

"Carter," he says, trying to make her last name mean no more than the last names of anyone else he's ever served with, and knowing that never once in all the years he's known her did he succeed.

"Did I wake you?" she asks.

"Sorta," he says, knowing she knows the answer before he says it.

"I couldn't sleep all last night," she says.

"Shoulda called," he says, "Wasn't the kid?"

"No, and I didn't want to bother you. I…" she says.

And there are a lot of things he wants to say. A lot of things he would say if he was sure he would die, and felt like he could throw away the frat regs. But if he threw those out every single time it looked like they were going to die, he and Sam…Well, it's best not to dwell on that, especially since it was sounding like a pretty good plan right now.

"Come in," he says.

And it's not quite com'ere the prefix to a patented Jack O'Neill hug which would make her feel better. If only for a little bit. Those hugs were few and far between. Things have to get pretty shitty before she got a com'ere hug. You had to be taken over by Tok'ra, or lose a friend, or spend time in hell-literally, in order to get one of those. She knew she wasn't getting a com'ere hug when she came over. He would never imagine she was capable of grieving for him. He would never offer her comfort when he was the only one in trouble.

"I was looking at the sky. Trying to figure out how many stars we've actually been to," he says. She knows he's full of crap. Everything about that statement is wrong. They've never been to a star. Touching something that hot tends to result in death.

She decides to call his bluff, "Actually… only a few of the stars visible from Earth have Stargates on them, so…"

"I know that," he says, "Hammond call you to check up on me?"

It's a stupid question. More stupid even than wondering how many stars he's been to. He knows this isn't an authorized mission. This is two people standing here awkwardly not saying all of the things that they want to say.

She makes some excuse why she's here. He lets her talk, not cutting her off, letting it become awkward. Letting her go on as a silent homage to all the times he refused to cut off her technobabble. Then he goes to get her a coffee, but failing at that, he brings her a beer.

When he comes back she's looking at a picture of Charlie. At least half of his pictures are SG-1, and he'd have thought she'd be drawn to those. There are also quite a few of Katie. But it's a picture of Charlie she puts down reverently when he hands her a beer.

"You ever talk to her?" Sam asks pointing to a picture of Jack, Sara, and Charlie. She's got good eyes; it's the only picture of Sara in the house. They both know it's the least awkward lead in to another conversation. One he will not have, because he might just live. There just might be another miracle.

"Can we not talk about that?" he asks, and Sam acknowledges with a head nod. She knows it's not just about his ex-wife he means.

"How do you feel?" she asks.

"Could we not talk about that either?" he says.

"Okay," she says. "What do you want to talk about?"

He takes the baby from her, "Just in case Carter, I left everything to her," he mutters.

She doesn't say anything, not quite sure what there is to say. The silence stretches a long time, but it isn't the silence that worries her. Jack is never this still.

"You want to be alone. This was a bad…we should go," she says reaching out for Katie.

"Finish your beer," he says not lessening his grip on the baby, "And then you have to wait at least an hour before you drive." He flicks the cap of his beer bottle across the room into the fireplace, and every muscle in her body relaxes. It's movement, a fidget.

"Sir…" Sam says, and for a moment they are both worried that all the forbidden things are going to come spilling out of her mouth.

"What?" he asks after nothing comes. He finds himself almost hoping all of the forbidden things will come spilling out of her mouth."

"I should have done it," she says. And they both know what it is. Survivor's-guilt which was for them, just as Jack said, is as common as concussions and knee injuries. But having a name for something doesn't do much good. Knowing that it is wrong to think something doesn't make you stop thinking it.

"What? Stick your head in that thing? Are you nuts? Carter, you're one of this country's natural resources, if not national treasures. It couldn't have gone down any other way. I just hope it's worth it."

And he looks at his lap at one of the little things he wanted to save. Easier to think of Katie than faceless millions.

"Even if we do find the Lost City, even if we get there and find exactly what we're looking for to defend the planet…" she says.

"That would be worth it," he says.

She shakes her head so slightly that if you were not looking closely you might miss it all together. He understands. He wouldn't trade her for the galaxy either.

There is a knock at the door. They both know the time to say the serious things is over. They made the decision not to say any of the serious things, but they can't go back on the decision now, even if they changed their minds.

"Hello?" Daniel asks tentatively. Despite the glasses he isn't blind. He knows what is between these two. He knew when he saw Sam's car what it might mean, since Jack was dying. He also knew it probably didn't mean that. After all, this wasn't the first time one of them had almost died.

"In here," Jack calls.

Daniel pokes his head around the corner looking for a moment like the socially terrified linguist Jack had first met years ago, "Are we interrupting something?"

"No," Sam and Jack say together. There had never been anything to interrupt.

And then Daniel proceeds to give an awkward reason of why they'd come. And for the first time since the two of them met, Jack lets him talk until the linguist runs out of words. Turns out he doesn't say much more without a word limit than with one, it just comes out slower.

* * *

Jack is working on making the ship faster. First time he's skilled with technology, no second time. He's had all of this in his brain before. "Sir, I think you should know that General Hammond authorized me to take command of the team if I determined it…" Sam says. He watches her fidget. He knows she's never going to feel like she can take command until he tells her too. It's a weakness she hates in herself. It's power over her he doesn't want to have.

"Do it now," he says.

"Sir, I don't think that's necessary, yet," Sam says. She's a Major now, one who has seen a lot of action. She can take care of herself, and is more than competent to lead a small team, hell an army. But for one second he sees the Captain he first met at a debriefing. She was inexperienced enough she hadn't yet lost count of the hours she'd fought. She was young enough she still thought bragging about her exploits was the way to get respect. She'd stood there trying to hide the flick of terror in her bright blue eyes with obnoxious feminism. Will she ever know how amazing she is?

"I trust you…I'll make it easy for you…I resign. You're in charge," he says.

"Okay," there is a pause. "Sir, at your house before Daniel and Teal'c showed up, what I was gonna say was…"

He stops her. For once he cuts her off before she wants him to. He can't let her say it. There are thoughts which cannot be unthought, feelings which cannot be unfelt, and words which cannot be unsaid. "I know," he says.

And she knows that he does know. It's been a long time since she actually thought her commanding officer was stupid. Longer even than since she thought he was an ass. But somehow, she still wanted to say it. She still wanted to tell him that she didn't want to live without him. That she was getting tired of almost losing him again and again. That she was willing to wait for him forever. That he was the only man she could ever love. And that if he died, she'd love him forever, anyway. She wanted to say this all, but she can't.

"Odysseus" she says.

He smiles. He doesn't know quite where she's going with this, but he does want to turn it into a joke if he can "Homer."

"No, Penelope," she says.

He freezes. She's gone and said everything he feared she would and more. "You're no Penelope, Carter. You'd have whooped the suitors' asses yourself, if you didn't want them around, instead of waiting on Odysseus. And…I don't want you to be Penelope," he adds looking into her eyes. He can't stand the thought of her waiting a decade for him. The comparison to Penelope haunts him. He sees Penelope working on a funeral shroud by day, unraveling by night. Suspending her life for an old man who may or may not come back.

"You don't really have a choice in the matter," she says.

Not a touch. Not a kiss. But he feels like he's broken every frat rule in the book.

* * *

Jack has saved the world. Now is the time to sleep. That one word punctuating his consciousness won't let him. "Sir? Sir?" it's a question or a command he isn't sure which.

Sam holds his head in her hands, "His pulse is erratic," she says over her shoulder, while keeping her face in front of his. "Don't you dare leave us now. We won," she insists. He tries to obey her orders. After all, she is his boss now. He opens his eyes, and tries to move. "Colonel!" she says holding his chin. He tries to tell her how to save him, but the words won't come out-in any language. "Please! Jack!" His name. She said his name, for the second time. This time he wasn't going to scold her, even if he could. The 'please' is familiar. He's done crazy things to obey her 'please don't die'. He let them put a snake in his head once.

"Dormata," he whispers.

"That thing," Daniel says pointing to a small person sized hollow in the wall. Teal'c doesn't say a word, he just picks up Jack and places him in the little hollow. It lights up, and Teal'c stands back.

"Now what?" Sam asks before she remembers she's the one who is supposed to be giving the orders now.

"Aveo…amacuse," Jack says.

"Goodbye," Daniel says nodding. But they all know that isn't the real translation. Daniel isn't quite sure what the real one is, but he knows it should be delivered to Sam in private. He caught "I wish" and some word whose root was "my love."

"We can't just leave him like this! There has to be a way to reverse the process. The answer has to be here somewhere," Sam insists.

"I don't think it is," Daniel whispers.

"What do you mean?" she asks.

"I don't think this is the lost city of Atlantis. I think it is just an outpost of some kind," Daniel says.

* * *

What had Jack said about after Charlie died? You have to bribe yourself to get out of bed. The last two weeks had been like that. It if it wasn't for Katie, and Cassie, and work, Sam might never find the reason to move.

"Breakfast, Sam!" an artificially cheerful voice rings out.

"You don't have to make me breakfast," Sam says coming out of her room and kissing Cassie on the forehead.

"I don't mind, I don't have my first class until ten o'clock today," Cassie says.

"I'm supposed to be taking care of you," Sam says.

"Let's make it mutual for a little bit," Cassie says. Sam doesn't argue, because Cassie has just handed her, her own private kryptonite, a cup of coffee.

AN: Daniel's in head translation of Jack's "last" Ancient words are the real Latin translation of what Jack said. Just a fun fact.


	8. Education

Sam has felt bad about betraying Fifth since she did it. She didn't need Fifth to torture her to tell her it was wrong.

There was a time when obeying an order meant you couldn't be charged for what you did. A time when an individual soldier would never be punished for following orders. But that time is over. And it was only on earth. And it only applied to official public trials.

It wouldn't have stopped Fifth from seeking his own justice.

Sam's been tortured before. But of all of SG-1, she has been tortured the least. She is still somewhat unused to it. When it started, she had the feeling in the pit of her stomach like she had the night before she flew over the Gulf for the first time. Could she endure? And she could.

But she desperately wants to figure out if what she did was really wrong. She does hate what she did to Fifth. . If anyone but the Colonel had commanded it, she knows she wouldn't have. So the feelings of whether it was right or wrong are so caught up in the complicated issue that was her commanding officer that she doesn't have the energy to sort it out.

Then suddenly the pain and the guilt are gone, and she's at the cabin. Long hair, lacy nightgown. Jack's cabin. And for the first time in her life, no guilt pricks her as she thinks the word, "Jack." As soon as she has thought that thought she wonders why she would ever feel guilty thinking her husband's name. Husband.

"Hey, sleepy head," he says with a wide grin, as he turns from the stove, "Did I keep you up too late last night?"

She decides not to respond to his cheekiness, "Whatcha making?" she says giving him a quick kiss.

"Omelets," he says with a grin. "Now give me a proper kiss."

He swings her down, and it's the best kiss ever, until…was that metal?

Replicator ship. Fifth.

"None of this is real," she says pulling away.

* * *

The first thing Jack's aware of feels like a punch in the gut. Then he figures out the punch in the gut has a name: Carter, or more specifically the lack of Carter. That bastard Fifth took her. Because he told Sam to lie to Fifth, to betray Fifth. He reminded himself he doesn't have time to hate himself right now. Because if he can stop the replicators…Maybe he could save her. If not, at least he could save Thor, and Thor's friends and Daniel and Teal'c.

He talks to them, and builds a weapon, and grieves. Who knew he could multi-task so well.

* * *

One second Sam is screaming at Fifth that she will never love him. And the next she finds herself lying on the floor of a forest. Teal'c is helping her sit up, and she sees Jack's face. Except now that he's ok, she can't think of him like that anymore. Not Jack, Sir.

"You ok?" he asks.

"Glad to see you, Sir," she says.

"Likewise," he says letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

* * *

"Come in," she says smiling when she sees who is behind the door. She doesn't want to call him Sir, but doesn't dare call him anything else. At least not right now.

"Carter," he says smiling.

"Uh…Kate is napping," she says returning the smile.

"How is she doing?" he asks.

"You wouldn't even think she's the same kid. I mean it's only been three months, but that's like six to her. She looks like she's a year," Sam says.

"She walking yet?" Jack asks.

"Running actually. And reading, and writing, and she talks more than Daniel, Sir," Sam says.

"I missed a lot," he says.

Sam puts her hand on his arm, "I have pictures, and she's probably not even going to realize you were gone, Sir. One year old's memories are fickle things."

"How are you doing?" he asks so intently that she can't help but squirm.

"Great," she says.

"What did Fifth do to you?" he asks.

"Declared his love for me," she says trying to make it a joke.

"Sam, I'm the king of 'don't want to talk about it.' But I know something big is wrong. Just tell me what it is," he says. She doesn't respond, "Carter, I don't know if it's possible, or how to be delicate about this…but do replicators have a form of rape?"

"No," she shakes her head, "He was inside of my head, but it wasn't that. This isn't about Fifth," she says.

"I came back safe," he offers.

"I know, but it took you long enough," she says.

"Com'ere," he says and she leans against him on the couch. How can he make really horrible stuff feel better?

"I got offered a promotion," he says, "Head of SGC, General."

She pulls away so she can look at him, "Really? Congratulations!"

"Don't know if I'm going to take it," he says.

"You will," she says.

"Daddy Jack!" a voice exclaims.

"Hi, baby girl," he says lifting her up.

"You were frozded," she informs him.

"So I was, and you were growing up," he tickles her belly, "Who said you could grow up?"

"Cell division, Daddy Jack," she says giggling.

"Well, I see you put that knowledge from your mother to good use," he says.

"Mommy never read Tolstoy," Kate whispers as if it were a great crime.

"Really?" Jack says pretending to be scandalized. "How _did_ she live this long? So Kate, what is it like to have all this information sitting in your brain. Does it hurt?" he asks concerned. He'd recently had a run in with the Ancient Repository of Knowledge which definitely _did_ hurt.

"No, but it's 'fusing sometimes. I don't know what's me and what's you. Plus," she sighs, "I don't know it all right away. I have to read a bit or watch someone do it to remember. And Mommy won't let me play with naquada generators."

"Wise decision," he says glancing at Sam and chuckling.

"So how many languages does Daniel Daddy know in all?" Jack asks.

She bites her lip, "A lot, but Mommy thinks you're the one I got the Irish from."

Crap, he thinks. "I don't know very much Irish, Baby Girl," he says.

Sam laughs, "I looked up the colorful expression that came out of her mouth the other day, Sir."

"I hope you didn't tell her what it means," he says in horror.

"Oh she knew; she wouldn't tell me," Sam exclaims.

"If only I'd had prior warning that everything I knew would come out of a baby's mouth, I'd have been more careful!" Jack explains.

"Here Daddy Jack, let me tell you a story," Kate says crawling on top of his chest to begin retelling a book which, it just so happened he'd written his graduate thesis on.

* * *

"Yuck!" Kate exclaims the next morning. Sam draws herself out of her daydream to turn and see what food her daughter is rejecting this time. When she turns, her daughter is still cheerfully eating.

"What Kate?" she asks.

"Why would you want to kiss Daddy Jack's neck?" the girl asks.

This was exactly what Sam had been thinking about.

"Why would you think I'd want to do that?" she asks hoping she has a good poker face. Kate possessed the knowledge of four experienced adults on that subject. But Sam would much rather keep her private sex life private, even if it was only in the form of a fantasy.

"You thought it," Kate said as if it were perfect obvious.

"I thought it?" Sam asks.

Kate nods.

"Sweetie, do you read minds?" Sam asks trying desperately to stay calm.

"Of course, more whip cream?" Kate asks.

"No, you've had enough. Tell me about reading minds," Sam says.

"Why?" Kate asks, "Can't you read minds?"

Sam shakes her head. "Kate, tell me what I am thinking right now."

"You're still thinking about Daddy Jack," Kate says, "You're thinking it's his fault."

"And now?" Sam asks.

"The number eight tilted sideways…no it's a symbol for infinity," Kate says grinning, "That's a pretty thought, infinity."

"Again," Sam says.

"Purple circle with a green elephant in it," Kate says.

"Ok, you've convinced me. Whose mind can you read? Have you ever read the minds of anyone beside Mommy and your Daddies'?" Sam asks.

"I don't 'member?" Kate said. Sam can tell she's starting to upset her daughter.

"It's ok baby," says taking her onto her lap, "Just another beautiful part of a beautiful mind.

* * *

"Colonel," she says on the phone, "Strange question…you don't happen to possess the ability to read minds do you?"

"Why would you ask?" Jack responds.

"Your daughter can," she says.

"But didn't you say she could have traits that none of us have?" Jack prompts.

"I did say that, but I can't help but notice you're not answering my question. If you can read minds she could use some guidance on how to do it ethically," Sam says.

He snorts, "What'd she read?" he asks, "My first mind reading was a teacher's mind during a spelling test."

"Why am I not surprised that you have the ability to read minds and never thought to mention it?" Sam asks.

"Noticed you're avoiding my question now," Jack answers.

"Bad enough that Kate knows what I was thinking. I don't need you to. Wait, why don't you just read my mind, ethics?" Sam asks.

"Sort of. I mean I wasn't trying out of respect, but I probably couldn't over the phone anyway. Reading minds requires me to see someone. And it has to be someone I know. Also, some people are hard to read. Danny boy has a freaking mind fortress."

"So it probably has to do with facial cues and body language," Sam says, "Wait, Sir, when you tell me to think more quietly…"

"Yeah, that's when I'm reading your mind by accident. Very annoying," Jack says.

"So you read minds on purpose?" she says.

"Not often, it's a huge privacy violation. But when I know someone's lying, I think they deserve it. Also, there have been times when people's lives were on the line. Also adds to people's conversations. Like when someone talks to me, pictures and examples behind the words. It is why I understand your technobabble by the way." Jack said.

"I thought it was extraordinary intuition," Sam says.

"Sam, I'm willing to help Kate, but could we keep my ability to read minds just between us?" he asks.

"Sure, but Sir, why?" she asks.

He doesn't answer.

"Same reason you pretend to be stupid, maybe, element of surprise," Sam guesses.

"I always figured if people found out…they'd shun me. Or dissect me, whatever. I will protect Kate from becoming a science experiment, but I don't feel like I can protect myself," he says.

"Could Charlie read minds?" Sam asks.

"No, but he is the only other person, besides you who knew," Jack says.

"Sir, if you don't think we should tell anyone about this I won't. I'm not going to risk Kate's safety," Sam says.

"You think a one year old is going to keep a secret?" he asks.

"You did it," she says.

"No, I was eight," he says, "Carter, I'll protect her."

"I know that. I'll protect her too. I do want to study this, but it will be me, at home, and I'm not pushing. I'd…I'd like to study you too, Sir. If you're comfortable with it," Sam says.

"What are you doing with the results?" Jack asks.

"Putting it in the pile of papers I can't publish until the Stargate is public knowledge," Sam says.

"With a sticky note not to publish until I'm dead," he adds.

"As long as you postpone that death for a long time, Sir," she says.

"Right back at you, Carter," Jack says.

* * *

"Daddy Jack, I know more than I understand," Kate says on one afternoon when he takes her to the park.

"Understandable, Baby Girl, what are you confused about?" Jack asks.

"Sex, and kissing on the mouth," Kate says.

Jack stares in horror at the baby he's about to have a sex talk with. "What did you want to know about it?"

"Why do people have sex when they don't want babies?" she asks.

"Well, honey," Jack says, "It feels good."

"And kissing?" Kate asks.

"It's fun," he says.

"Oh," Kate says, "Why do people think about kissing?"

"Well that's fun too," he says.

"Oh, how do they pick the person they want to think about?" Kate says.

"Well, it's someone they love," he says deciding that if he's going to endure this much discomfort he's certainly going to make it moralistic.

Hum..." Kate says, "So Mommy is in love with you?"

Jack examines her face, "Your mother and I have never had sex."

"No, but you said you should love someone to think about kissing them," Kate says.

Jack's eyebrows shoot up. "Sweetie was this question based on something you read in your mom's mind?"

Kate nods, "So you going to get married?" she says casually.

He smiles, "No Baby Girl, your mother and I can't get together, because of our jobs. But we will both always love you, ok?"

Kate nods.

"And you shouldn't read people's minds unless they are talking to you, to add to the conversation," Jack says.

"You love Mommy?" Kate asks crawling onto his lap.

"Yeah, I do," he says kissing her forehead, "But we're not going to get together."

* * *

"Daddy T?" the little girl says.

Teal'c grins, and finds himself having to bend over. He has found her little voice has a tendency to get lost when he walks with the little girl.

"What is it like to be stuck in a video game?" she asks.

"The computer programming was designed to imitate reality," Teal'c replies.

"Daddy T, you talk funny," Kate says.

"Indeed," he replies.

"I remember some…" Kate tries to do some Jaffa martial arts, "but I need to see it to remember," she says.

"Your thirst for knowledge is unquenchable, KateCarter," Teal'c says.

"It's genetic," Kate says.

"Indeed," Teal'c says beginning to show her some moves. She imitates him, learning everything the first time.

"Hey, T," Jack says entering his quarters, "You starting pretty young teaching her to fight."

"Young Jaffa begin their training at the age of three," Teal'c replies.

"Well, this little tike," Jack says lifting Kate up, "Is only nine months old."

"You're 'posted to say I'm eighteen months, Daddy Jack," Kate protests through her giggle as he tips her upside down. "Daddy Jack, you're in charge of the SGC now, right?" she asks.

"For a couple months now," he says mussing her hair.

"When can I get a job?" Kate asks.

Jack grins, "You want me to give you a job at the SGC?"

Kate blinks her eyes, "I'm 'posed to have a resume right? Can you show me one?"

"Baby Girl, do you remember something called a 'child labor law'?" he asks.

Kate frowns, "Do I have to be sixteen chronologically or look sixteen factoring in my modified growth?"

Jack grins, "You are no ordinary child, so we can negotiate later. But you have some growing up to do. Even though that head is pretty full," he says tapping her head.

"But after I've grown up you'll give me a job?" Kate asks.

"I don't know Baby Girl. I'm going to be old by then. Probably someone else will be in charge," Jack says.

"Mommy?" Kate asks.

Jack chuckles, "I have no doubt your mom will run this place someday. We're going to lunch, coming big guy?" he asks Teal'c.


	9. Baby's First Job

"Mommy," Katie reached up and wrapped herself around Sam as Sam picked her up from day care. "I saw the guy on TV claiming he knows about aliens."

"You were watching TV?" Sam said in surprise, "You usually read. I mean it's ok. It's normal, even good."

"Just the news Mom. It's not like I was watching the Simpsons," Katie said with an eye roll.

Sam laughs at that. "Mommy has to go travel to try to talk to that guy, and here is a surprise. You get to come along," she says.

"Daddy Jack is giving me a job?" Katie asks.

"What? No, no job until you are a grown-up," Sam says.

Katie sticks out her lip, "That's what Daddy Jack said. But I get to help?" she says hopefully.

"Not so much help as ride along, go sightseeing with Cassie," Sam says.

* * *

"Mommy" Katie greets as Sam enters the hotel room after Alec paraded a live Asgard out on television, "I wanted to tell you that the Asgard was a clone that didn't get the memory download. How do Asgard do the memory thing anyway? I know how the Ancients do it, but none of you ever figured the Asgard version out. At least before I was…what word do we use for what happened to me?" Katie asks.

"Wow, lots of questions," Sam says, "What happened to you…we definitely called being born," Katie starts to protest, but Sam holds up her hand, "You were born, sweetie. Not scientifically, but that's what we call it, because you're a human, and humans are born. You're exactly right about who the Asgard was on the TV. That was really smart. And the Asgard use a medical interface to download knowledge into a clone. More like a Tok'ra memory device, than the Ancient 'head grabber' as Daddy Jack calls it"

"Tok'ra memory devices hurt don't they?" Katie asks.

Sam grimaces at her own not-so-pleasant memories of the things, "Right, so kid, pretty good guess on the Asgard stuff. Who would have thought, you were actually smart?"

"You know who would be really helpful in convincing everyone there was not an alien? An alien," Katie says.

"That's really not a bad idea," Sam says.

* * *

Alec pauses as he walks into his office. The sight of a two year old buried in the thickest book in the place is not something he expected to see.

"Hi, are you lost?" he asks.

"No," she shakes his head, "I'm waiting for my mother to get done talking to a rich guy who's going to tell the world there are aliens."

"And are there aliens?" he asks.

She tilts her head at him, "You're Alec?" she asks putting down the book.

"I am, you couldn't be…Sam's daughter?" he asks.

"I am. I know a lot about you. You and my mom dated?" she asks.

"Does she talk about me?" Alec asks.

"How else would I know things about you?" the little girl asks.

"You know, answering a question with another question is a real conversation killer," Alec says.

"Plato would disagree," Katie shoots back.

"You're awfully young to know about Plato," Alec says. He's already figured out that this is no ordinary girl.

"Daddy Jack likes Plato. Why do you want everyone to think that alien is real?" she asks.

"Because it is real," Alec says.

Katie laughs, "If I had a real alien, I'd make him give a speech."

Alec narrows his eyes at her, "Why is everyone trying to keep the fact that there are aliens a secret?"

"Some secrets keep people safe, and that is the most important thing. Everyone to be safe," Katie says.

"Truth is pretty important to," Alec says.

She looks at him for a second. "You look like Daddy Jack does when he's thinking about Charlie. Did someone die?"

Alec closes his eyes, "A long time ago. I lost my wife and daughter."

She puts her tiny hand over his large one, "And would you lie if it meant they never had to die?"

"Who would I be keeping safe with this lie?" he asks, "People deserve to know how much danger they are in."

"Me. You're keeping me safe. And my mommy and my daddies, and the whole world," she says.

"Thanks for the platitudes," he says.

"What is your friend's name? The one who does….math?" she asks.

"Brian," he says wondering who mentioned him to the little girl.

"You're keeping Brian safe, you're keeping his family safe," she says.

"Did they send in a pint sized diplomat to threaten me?" he asks.

"No, I'm not allowed to have a job until I grow up," she says pouting.

"Katie!" Cassie exclaims coming around the corner and scooping her into a hug, "For future reference when I say sit quietly and read a book I mean a book from your bag and to sit quietly in the same room I left you in."

"Duly noted," Katie says without even a slight touch of her Daddy's sarcasm.

"I'd like to talk to your mother again, Katie. I'll see if she can really convince me that lies can keep people safe," Alec says.

"I thought I already did that," Katie said looking at him with surprise.

"Pretty close," he says with a smile. Pretty close."

* * *

"Guys, I'm worried about Katie's social development," Sam says on the plane ride back to Colorado Springs.

"Are you kidding?" Daniel says, "She made friends with Alec in a second flat."

"Right, she's great-with adults," Sam says.

"Which makes sense, considering what's in that little brain of hers," Jack says.

"I was thinking about enrolling her in a preschool. She's too young, of course, but she's already got fake paperwork. I was thinking we could get new paperwork claiming she is three years old. I know she's technically only fourteen months, but with the double growth that puts her at a little over two years old. I think she could pull off three years of age," Sam says.

"You sure she's ready for this?" Jack asks.

"I don't think she's even close to ready for this. But that is kind of the point. She learns fast. We might as well start her at learning the thing she is the worst at," Sam explains.

"I think this plan shows wisdom, MajorCarter," Teal'c says.

Daniel gives a nod, and Jack offers a smile, even if it is a smile with reservations.

* * *

Sam has never been so nervous in her entire life. All she's doing is picking up her daughter from her first day of preschool.

"Ms. Carter, can I speak to you for a moment," the teacher says.

"Actually Colonel Carter," she says with a smile, "Or Dr. Carter."

"Right…I'm not sure if your daughter is ready for preschool," the teacher repeats.

"Are you kidding? Of course, she's ready," Sam says, "Sweetie," Sam grabs a thick book off the teacher's desk, and opens them to a random page, "read this."

"I can't, Mommy," Katie says.

"Of course, you can," she says glancing at it. Her daughter's finger is on a word.

"It's French," Sam prompts.

"Oh, then you would pronounce it Piaget, right?" Katie asks.

"I don't know, I'm not the linguist," Sam says.

"Piaget's theory of psychosocial development is a stage theory of child psychology," Katie reads evenly.

"Thanks honey, can you go play in the other room?" Sam says.

"I want to finish reading that book," Katie says.

"Honey, I'll make sure I get you a book on child development the next time we go to the library" Sam says, "Go play, please."

Katie leaves, and Sam looks at the teacher, "So what is it really about?"

"Who's the linguist?" the teacher asks.

"A friend of mine," Sam says.

"Daddy Daniel?" the teacher asks.

"Yes, my daughter calls him that," Sam says slowly and evenly.

"And her other two 'daddies'?" the teacher asks.

"One is another friend of mine, and one is her biological father," Sam says, "Are you trying to tell me that this is why you don't want my daughter to come back?"

"I didn't say that," the teacher says.

"Right, because that would be illegal," Sam says.

"We're a private preschool. We can accept and reject students for any reason," the teacher states.

"Ok, so unethical," Sam says, "That little girl is a gem. She's weird and quirky sure, but mostly extraordinary. Katie should not be penalized for the fact that when I decided to become a single mom, I had three really great male friends who were there for me and my baby," she says, "I think we'll find another preschool."

Sam knows the question is coming as she buckles her daughter into the car seat. Those wide intelligent eyes saw things most kids wouldn't figure out.

"I screwed up didn't I?" Katie says.

"No, you didn't, and say messed up," Sam says.

"So, I'm coming back tomorrow?" Katie says helpfully.

Sam sits down on the floor of the car hugging the car seat awkwardly. It's not comfortable, but she doesn't really care, "No, tomorrow you'll be in day care all day. And the day after that Mommy has off. And before long we'll find you a new preschool."

"What did I do wrong?" Katie asks.

"Nothing, this was not about you," Sam says pulling her daughter's hair back from her face.

"It is, and if you don't tell me it's just going to happen again," Katie insists.

"It really isn't about you. These people just weren't big fans of the fact that you have three daddies," Sam smiles, "they don't understand how lucky you are."

"If I hadn't talked about it…they would have let me stay?" Katie asks hopefully.

"Not your fault. But if you don't want to tell people, I would be ok with that," Sam says. She grimaces thinking that is way too big of a decision for such a little kid to make.

"I keep a lot of secrets," Katie says.

"You do. But there is nothing wrong with you. Or your Daddies. Or the way you were born. Or anything else about your life, you got it?" Sam asks.

Katie nods, and Sam gives her a kiss.

* * *

"How did the first day of school go?" Jack asks Katie joyfully at the start of a team dinner. Jack came over early, he always did.

"So badly, it's also going to be my last day," Katie mumbles.

Jack looks at Sam concerned. "We're going to try another school," she reassures Katie.

"Baby Girl, the Simpsons are on," Jack tells Katie. She doesn't even look up from her book. "Now that is just not normal," he mutters to Sam. "Katie, I brought you a documentary on how they now think that Homer might have been a woman," Jack says.

Katie looks up, "I don't buy it for a minute. But I am going to watch it." As she walks past her dad she turns, "That's not what Mom's swimsuit looks like," she says confused.

Sam erupts into giggles, and Jack makes a busted face. "What did I tell you about reading minds when someone isn't talking to or lying to you?" he asks.

"You were talking to me," Katie says confused.

"Ok, that one was probably my own fault," he mutters. "You should only read minds when it has to do with the conversation at hand," he clarifies.

"And what were your takes on the documentary?" Sam asks after Katie has left the room, eager to change the subject,

"You could never prove I watched it," he says with a shake of his head. Then his face grows serious, "So tell me, what happened at her school today?"

"The teachers might have gotten a little catty, and yes that is the right word, over some of her conversation topics," Sam says.

"Oh God, she was talking about sex wasn't she?" he asks, "She didn't share anything ah…personal did she?" Jack asks.

Sam cocks her head at Jack wondering exactly what knowledge about sex he had and didn't want anyone to know he had, "No, it wasn't about sex. I think she's finally added that on to her list of 'in the house only' topics.

"Did she break the cover story? Admit to being an alien or a clone or something else that would make the teachers think she was nuts?" he asks.

"You are making what really happened seem tame, Jack, she spent the day talking about the wonderful men she has in her life," Sam says.

Jack sits back with a sad sigh, "Ah, the three Daddies problem?" he says biting his lip, "But otherwise she did ok? Like she can relate with other children well?" he asks.

Sam bites her lip, "It's not like I actually saw her play or talk to anyone her age. She was chatting with a teacher when I came in. That was the point of preschool. Have her meet friends her own age."

"But what is her age really?" he asks, "Is it fair for us to expect her to act like a three year old? It's almost like we picked that age out of a hat. If you suddenly found yourself in the body of a three year old, would that mean you wanted to play with three year olds? She's got four adults worth of information in that brain of hers," he says shaking his head, "Maybe expecting her to play with little kids is odd. Maybe hanging out with adults is more normal. We can try other schools, but…maybe we should consider her job application," he pulls folded papers out of the pocket of his coat, "Yes, she did give me a job application, and resume'. Very professional for the most part, but here is my favorite part," he says with a grin pointing to the top, "she addressed it to General Daddy Jack."

"Jack, even if you're right about her mental age. She is not emotionally mature enough for a job, and physically couldn't handle the demands of a full time job," Sam protests.

"You are absolutely right," Jack says, "I'm not proposing we give her a full time job. How long is preschool? Three hours a couple of days a week? That would be long enough right now. We'd give her some of Daniel's rocks to translate or some doohickey of yours that we are really, really, really sure isn't going to blow up or shoot things out of it or carry a horrible disease or…you know what? I'm having second thoughts," he says looking worried.

"Oh come on. My lab work is not that dangerous, Sir, I've never been injured by an alien device I was studying," she says.

"I have been," he grumbles.

"Well, we'll make it a point to keep you out of her workspace," she says, "Do you actually have the authority to give your one year old daughter a job, Jack?"

He nods, "Cleared it with the president."

"I think it's a good plan," she says.

He grins, "Can I make her come in for an interview, please?"

"Yeah, have fun with it," Sam says thinking that Jack was far more childish than either of her daughters, "Just ask her what kind of work she wants to do at some time during the interview please."

He nods.

"But, Sir, even though we're sort of giving up on the normal childhood thing…I don't want to totally give up on it. I still want her to play, a lot. I was never good at letting loose and playing when I actually was a kid. I'm worse at it now. But you're great at it. You're great for her. If she's never going to play with children her own age, I want to make sure she keeps playing with you," Sam says.

"I think there was an insult in there…somewhere," Jack says.

"Sir," she protests quietly.

"I won't let her get a little baby stick up her butt, Carter," he says with a smile.

* * *

"Ah, it's nice to have a day off," Katie says looking up at her mother. Sam laughs. It's another way for Katie to brag about her "job". Katie has so far had two days consisting of a few hours each, of work. One of them she spent translating, and one she spent with engineering. Yet Katie feels pretty proud of herself, and informs anyone with a security clearance of her pint-sized job.

"We're at a museum, which counts as a public place," Sam reminds her daughter.

"Right," Katie says, and Sam can see her muttering to herself. No doubt repeating the list of things she's not allowed to talk about: aliens, alien planets, swear words, sex, anything requiring a high school education or above, what her parents do for a living, how she came into existence…

The child had a lot of lies in her life.

"Do you have to hold my hand?" Katie asks indignantly.

The terrible twos show up a little differently in someone with this level of intelligence, but Sam really didn't want to push it so she said, "As long as you're going to stay close."

Katie rolled her eyes while nodding.

Sam bent to read a sign at the "Space Odyssey exhibit." Unfortunately Katie had not only the temper of a two year old, but also the attention span of one (and one with some of Jack O'Neill's genes, none the less), and she saw a flag advertising an Egyptian mummy exhibit way up on the third floor. By the time Sam finished reading the sign, and turned there was no trace of the little girl.

* * *

Jack hated when SG-1 was not on base. Not that the three of them didn't deserve days off, they could all do with some getting of a life. But he would rather have them on base. Of course having them on leave was better than having them off world. At least he didn't have to have a worry in the pit of his stomach when he knew his extended family was safe and sound on earth.

"Sir, phone call," Walter says, and Jack catches something on Walter's face that worries him.

"Who is it?" he asks.

"Colonel Carter," Walter says.

"Sir…she's gone," Sam's voice says into the phone.

"Who's gone?" Jack asks.

"Katie! She was right here, and now she's gone!" Sam explains in a panicked voice.

"I'll be right there, Carter, where are you?" he asks.

"We're in Denver, Sir; we decided to go to the natural history museum," she sobs, "Do you think the NID took her? They just tried to kill a man not last week, do you think…" but Sam can't bear to say her worry that her daughter is dead aloud.

"Let's not jump to any conclusions, Sam. For all we know she's eating ice cream right now. I'm going to fly there, it will be faster," Jack says.

"Actually it wouldn't be, Sir. With drives under an hour and a half, the flight and driving differences are negligible, and by the time you arrange the flight..." she begins.

"Walter, you're driving me to Denver, now," he barks tossing him the keys.

"Yes, Sir," Walter replies, falling into step behind the General, and even through his worry Jack wonders how it is that the man isn't even surprised. Sometimes he wonders if Walter keeps the ability to tell the future a secret in the same way he keeps his own mind reading a secret.

"It's going to be ok, Sam, did you contact security?" Jack asks.

"Yes, and the cops. I…I don't know what to do. Should I stay where she left me or go searching?" Sam asks.

"Sam, you lead SG-1, you can make decisions like that," he says knowing that if he just made the call for her it could hurt her belief in herself as a leader and a mother.

"My decisions have never affected my daughter before," she says, "I have another call Jack, just a second," she says. There is a tiny pause, "It's Pete," she says.

"Pete, as in you dated Pete?" he asks.

"Yeah, I have no idea why he's calling," she says.

"You take it Carter, I'll give Teal'c and Daniel a ring before calling you back," Jack says, "We'll find her," he adds before clicking the phone shut.

* * *

The first thing Katie did when she got to the third floor was look down to make sure she still knew where her mom was. Her stomach spun as she looked down from the third floor railing and not only didn't see her mother, but didn't see the aerospace exhibit. She closed her eyes, and tried to access her knowledge of the place. At least some of her parents had been here before she was born, hadn't they? Hadn't she just gone straight up? Or had the escalators turned her so she ended up on a different part of the floor?

Lost. The knowledge in her mind supplied her a few conflicting messages on what a child who was lost was supposed to do. Stay where you are. Find someone you can trust, someone you know or a cop.

Wait. That guy…He was both.

"Excuse me," she says pulling on the edge of his button up shirt, "I'm lost."

The man looks at her, "Well, we're going to have to find your parents," he says looking around.

"I think my mom is probably on the bottom floor. That's where I left her. You're the one who used to call me Katie Kat," she informs him.

His eyes bulge, "Katie? Sam's daughter?"

"I know, you're probably surprised at how much I've grown up," she says.

"Actually, I'm pretty surprised you remember me. You were pretty small when I left," he says. He shakes his head, "I am going to call your mother, I'm sure she's frantic about you."

Pete finds himself wondering if Sam's going to pick up. He doesn't really have any reason to think she's not going to. It's not like she's ever hung up on him. But they also haven't talked since they broke up, "Sam?" Pete says.

"I'm sorry Pete, I can't talk right now, I know that probably sounds like a brush off, but…" Sam begins frantically.

"Katie's with me. We're up on the third floor…ah…I assume you're somewhere in the museum," he says.

"Oh god, yes, you found her? Oh thank you Pete. I'll be right up there!" Sam says.

"Ah, it was more like she found me. She…remembered me Sam. We're by the Egyptian exhibit," he adds.

"Oh, you can't even imagine the things I was thinking happened to her. I'm so glad you were there for her, Pete, I can't thank you enough!" Sam says, and Pete can see her hurrying up the escalator.

Without closing the phone he turns to Katie, "Katie Kat, when your mom and I broke up I thought you wouldn't remember me. Wouldn't be able to miss me. I…feel like I abandoned you, and I am so sorry for that. I never meant to do that. If you wanted we could…play catch or something sometime."

She smiles, "Mom was right. You will make really great Dad. But you aren't _my_ dad. And my problem is not too few dad's but too many. Besides, I think Daddy Jack is probably better at catch than you."

Pete nods, "You're probably right kiddo," he says, "Daddy Jack is exactly who should be playing catch with you.

Just then Sam catches up with them. She literally drops down to the ground and slides the last few inches on her knees so she can get her arms around her daughter faster. "Baby Girl!" she explains, "Where were you?" And the next few minutes were filled with scolding and worrying and petting like only a mother just relieved of a huge burden of worry can do. Then she called Jack, who not only made Walter finish the drive, but spend the rest of the afternoon with them at the museum.


	10. Replicators

"Jacob, Good to see you," Jack says giving him a handshake and a slap on the back. Jacob wonders if the time he heard Jack call him 'dad' to Sam was an isolated incident or if that is what Jack always references him as behind his back. If he knew it might give a little insight to the 'not a relationship' his daughter had with the man.

"Where is that little Granddaughter of mine?" Jacob asks.

Jack grins ear to ear, "She's at work," he says in a completely nonchalant tone.

"What?" Jacob asks.

"I said 'she's at work'," Jack repeats a touch louder as if he really believed the 'what' referenced a failure to hear.

"She's a baby!" Jacob objects.

"Hey now, she's almost two. You factor in the double growth, and it's like she's four," Jack protests. The protest is actually more of a warning. He'd called his daughter 'baby girl' the other night and had to endure a mixture of Sam's hand to hand training and Teal'c's martial art intertwined with a few moves only a few black ops operatives knew. You wouldn't think a four year old could hurt a grown man, but you'd be wrong.

"Most four year olds don't work," Jacob says.

"Relax; we're not slave driving the poor thing. But preschool was pretty much a disaster, we tried three. We had to limit the topics of acceptable conversation until the kid could barely talk. We asked her to be someone she is not, and play with people who only possessed the tiniest fraction of her brain. So I gave her a job six hours a week instead. When she turns four we'll increase her hours to eight a week. At five, she'll get thirty-five, same as a school day until she's sixteen when we'll hire her full time. Assuming of course she hasn't wised up and decided to become a circus clown or something."

"A circus clown?" Jacob asks dubiously.

"What higher hopes can a father have for his daughter?" Jack replies.

"Does the littlest Dr. Carter have an office?" Jacob asks.

"It's the same as the older Dr. Carter today," Jack replies. "You have any business or is this a purely social call?" Jack asks.

"Just visiting family this time," Jacob says with a grin.

"Ah, just the way I like it. The world at peace for just one moment…" he grins.

"You should come to dinner, with us tonight, Jack," Jacob says.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," Jack says.

"I said I wanted to spend time with my family," Jacob insists with a smile.

"Matchmaker," Selmak accuses inside of Jacob's head. "I'm not denying it," Jacob replies in the same way.

* * *

Katie lights up when she sees her grandfather at the door. She turns to her mother, "Request permission to take a break?"

Sam grins, "For the thousandth time Katie, you cannot be in the Air Force until you're eighteen, and why don't you take the day off?"

"Thank you ma'am," Katie replied quickly flinging herself into Jacob's arms. Katie freezes. She pulls away every part of her body, except one of her arms, which is sitting on the base of his neck. "Grandpa what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he says.

"Selmak's sick," she says.

"Dad?" Sam asks.

"How did you know that?" he asks setting Katie on a lab bench so he can look at her.

"He was thinking about it. Did I mess up the reading mind rules again?" she asks.

"She can read minds?" Jacob exclaims, "A little warning would be nice!"

Jack shoots him an apologetic look, before he starts talking to his daughter, "No, I'm thinking this might fit under the 'to save someone's life' part of the rule," Jack says, "Jacob?"

Jacob closed his eyes, "I wasn't going to worry you."

"Is Selmak going to be ok?" Sam asks.

"She's dying," Jacob says.

"Oh God Dad, I only lived with Jolinar for a short amount of time, but I think I can begin to imagine what you are going through," she says.

"I need the healing device," Katie exclaims, "Wait…I can't use the healing device I don't have any naquada in my blood. Mom can use it though."

"I appreciate it, Katie, but the Tok'ra haven't been able to heal me," Jacob says.

"No…but Jolinar, she used it differently…" Katie begins. She stops when she realizes that all the adults in the room are staring at her.

"Jolinar?" Jack asks carefully.

Katie nods.

"How much Jolinar do you have in there?" Sam asks worriedly. She didn't think she had much of Jolinar. And what she did have was mostly fragments of torture and being tortured, killing and being killed. She had nothing left of Jolinar that she would want her daughter to have inherited.

"Mostly schematics I think," she frowns, "I don't always know what came from who. I especially have trouble figuring out what things came from Jolinar and what came from the Ancients."

"Ancients?" Sam says looking at Jack.

"That's from Daddy Daniel's ascended time," Katie says, "I don't have it all….he never kept it all. There are just a few things."

"Schematics sound useful," Jack says brightly.

"Much better than Jolinar's memories," Sam mutters.

"I didn't get any memories from any of you," Katie says.

"I know we thought that, but Pete said you remembered him when you found him when you were lost," Sam explains.

"She got lost?" Jacob asks.

"She was fine, in a museum, everyonewas ok," Jack says quickly.

"Well I do sometimes know facts about people you knew. I remember Pete from my own memories," she says.

"There is no way you can remember Pete. You have not seen him since you were tiny. No one can remember that young," she says.

"Right, also no two year old can fix Stephen Hawking's equations," Katie says.

Jack looks to Sam for confirmation of that bold statement.

"Little Miss Katie, I am still not convinced you 'fixed' them, and you're getting off subject. You remember Pete from your own memories?" Katie nods, "Then you also remember…" Sam covers her mouth, and pulls her daughter into a hug. Jack gives Jacob a look, and they both file out of the room.

"There was a night when you were really small, and Mommy was really tired…" Sam begins.

"And I had to scream to wake you up," Katie says nodding.

Sam's lip quivers, "And afterword you went to go see Daddy Jack."

Katie nods her head, "And I was kinda scared until Daddy Jack said you didn't mean it, and only said you were going to leave me forever, because you were so tired."

Sam pulls her close, "I am so sorry, Katie, so sorry. I never meant it. You have to know I would never, ever, ever leave you. Ok?" she asks pulling away, "I was tired and I wasn't thinking clearly, and I said things I didn't mean."

"It would have been my fault if you left," Katie said soberly, "Daddy Jack said so, he asked me what I was doing to you, but I couldn't talk yet."

"Honey, he didn't mean that it was your fault. Babies cry. You did nothing wrong. You were just asking for food. I should have asked your daddies to come over and help, and I never would have been that tired, and you never would have been in danger. Not your fault," she says lifting her daughter's chin to reinforce the concept.

"You only slept for a tiny bit, and I didn't almost fall," she tells her mother.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, you could have been hurt, and it would have been my fault," she says.

Katie shakes her head, "I'm done talking about it," she says.

Sam grins, "You get your reluctance to talk about emotional matters from your father."

"Which one?" Katie asks, and Sam realizes that she's going to have to start being more careful about the way she thinks about Jack.

* * *

"Sam," Jacob says after the rest of his visitors have left the infirmary later that night.

"I'm sorry I couldn't heal you," Sam says, "I don't know that much about the hand device. Maybe we should get some Tok'ra here.

"It's not your fault. Jolinar was not the only Tok'ra who knew that method. It's been tried on me before. I just had to let the little girl try," he says with a smile. "Sam, it is possible that I'm going to die with Selmak," he says.

"No, Dad, please," Sam says. Her eyes pleading at someone to continue living has saved people's lives before. Jacob's life, Jack's life, a soldier in the field on her very first mission that lost way more blood than people survive, but who lived none the less.

"Honey, I was going to try to hang on. A final show-down with the Gou'ald is coming. I wanted to help. If I let her go now, I've got a pretty good chance of living, but Selmak won't be able to help with the battle," Jacob says.

"You have to do it now, Dad," Sam says.

"I know, Selmak's been screaming it for weeks. I'm going to let her go now, but I still might die, so I wanted to say something really important to you before I let…Selmak die for me. Sam, don't let the rules stand in your way."

"I don't know what you mean," Sam says. Jacob gives a look of annoyance and disbelief that Sam hasn't seen since the last time she tried to tell her father a cover story.

"All I have ever wanted is for you to be happy. I haven't always gone about it the right way, but that is all I've ever wanted. You can still have everything," he says.

"I do," she says.

He shakes his head.

"I really do," she insists taking one of his hands and crying upon it.

"Sammy, there is a good chance I'm going to be ok. If I'm not there is a disk in my bag that I liberated from the Tok'ra," he smiles at her grimace, "It shows where all the Gou'ald ships in the galaxy are. A few replicators have started taking out Gou'alds at the edge of the galaxy. It's something we should watch, something that is probably going to blow up in our faces before too long," Jacob says. "I love you," he whispers. Then he closes his eyes.

* * *

It's been hours, and Sam hasn't emerged from the observation room overlooking her father's isolation room. Jack sends Katie home with Teal'c for the night, and goes in to see her.

"You ok?" Jack asks coming to sit by Sam.

"There is a good chance he is going to be fine. And if he isn't… I thought I was going to lose him four years ago. Since then we've been closer than we've ever been before in my life," Sam says.

"Com'ere," he says, and pulls her into one of those comforting hugs. He thinks how unfair this is. If she were to lose her best friend and her father all in the same year, it would be too much. Too unfair. The hug is slightly different than all of his other com'ere hugs. Not from his end, where it is still comfort and support. But her thumb is slowly running across his hand. Her hand is almost in a way holding his, although it almost looks like she is touching her own shoulder.

"Thank you, Sir," she says.

He turns to her confused, "what for?"

"For being here for me," she says.

He smiles, that, at least, he could do, "always," he says.

Sam wakes up, to find herself wrapped all around her commanding officer in the observation room. She turns quickly to what she can see through the window. She sees her Dad's eyes open. She stands up, nearly causing Jack to fall to the floor.

"I'm sorry," she mutters.

"Dad's up," he says with a smile.

"I know," she says her smile lighting up.

"I see you did understand that talk, even though you pretended not to," Jacob says.

Sam's cheeks turn a little bit red. "Nothing happened, Dad."

"Huh, I always thought you were a genius, and he only pretended to be stupid," Jacob says.

"I'm glad you're ok, Dad," she says swiftly changing the subject, "so what are the replicators up to?" she asks.

"Good segue kid," he smiles, "We can stop talking about your personal life now."

"Are you ok, Dad?" she asks.

"I am," Jacob says, "I really am.

* * *

"Hey kid," Jack says.

"I accidently read your mind," Katie responds. She couldn't very well help it considering all the worry that was in her father's face.

"Just as well, but everything is going to be ok, your mom has figured out how to make a new disruptor technology to fight the replicators," Jack says.

"Grandpa is ok?" she asks.

"Yeah," Jack grins, "He's just fine. In fact, he and your mother are off trying to save the world right now. They are looking for an ancient weapon on Dakara. Daddy Teal'c is with them."

"Where is Daddy Daniel?" Katie asks.

"I'm sure he's fine," Jack says, but his words were not the kind of thing that was going to fool anyone.

"I don't want to go home, Daddy Jack," she says, "Let's eat here and sleep in your quarters, and then you can get back to work sooner."

"You are too wise for your age," he says mussing her hair.

* * *

Katie was caught somewhere between worry and boredom. The base had been evacuated, but it wasn't like that was something that had never happened before. None of the day care providers were worried, and the other kids certainly were not. But she knew there was something real going on. Something real enough that Daddy Jack didn't know where Daddy Daniel was.

But even worry gets worn thin after a while, and it had already been hours.

"Lieutenant," she says quietly to the lady who ran the place. Someone everyone else called Brit, "I don't like Aristotle," she says holding up the book forlornly.

"Not surprising, little one," the woman replies.

"What can I do, now?" Katie asks.

"You've got a lot of pretty amazing things in that brain of yours, why don't you put some of it down on paper?" she says handing the little girl a sheet of paper, and a crayon. Katie grins widely, and becomes so absorbed in the task that she stops worrying.


	11. Love, Marriage, and a baby carriage

A big thank you to Bruised Reed for all of her beta work!

Sam thinks the cabin is almost too peaceful after what they've all just gone through. Jack had been stuck in a mountain that was about to be blown up being swarmed by his favorite mechanical bugs. Daniel was fighting a mental battle with a powerful robot based on herself. Teal'c had been leading an entire race in a battle against another entire race and she and her father had been building a super weapon.

"Did we deserve a vacation or what?" Jack asks sitting down in the lawn chair next to her on the dock. She originally came out here to watch the sunset. That had happened a few hours ago, and she hadn't bothered to move inside.

"Was I thinking too loudly, Sir?" she asked.

"Yes, you were," he says with a grin, "I could practically hear you in the cabin. But you can't call me, sir, anymore."

"What?" she says.

"I'm not longer in the Air Force, Carter," he says.

"Sir, you are too important to retire," she says looking at him with concern, because she knows exactly what the only reason for him retiring would be.

"I didn't say I was retiring," Jack says with a smile. "I said I resigned from the Air Force. You see, as your father pointed out when he thought he might die, we've had civilians in charge of the SGC before. If I stayed in the Air Force it would only be a matter of time until they tried to promote me to Washington, and you know how I feel about Washington Carter. If I retire from the Air Force I've got a better chance of staying in charge of the SGC, and getting to go through the 'gate every now and again."

"My Dad," she says.

"Is that seriously all you got out of the speech, Carter? Pithy, must keep it pithy," he mutters to himself.

"I just don't want you to be doing something just because my dad told you to," she says nervously.

"It's not about Dad. It's about us," Jack says. "Hammond approved me as the civilian head of the SGC. Same job different title. I'm a civilian, as of…" he pauses looking at his watch, "five, four, three, two, one…now," he says grandly. She looks at him. He looks at her. "That was anti climatic," he whines.

"What did you expect me to do, si..." she starts saying.

"Uh-uh-uh" he says holding up a finger, "Jack," he corrects.

"Jack," she repeats. She looks nervous, and she slowly reaches out and takes his hand, intertwining his fingers with hers.

"Better," he says.

"I didn't want you to sacrifice for me…us," she says.

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want to," he says.

"Jack, you know the machine that made Katie?" he nods, "It's at Area 51. They plan on releasing it to the general public with some lies about its origins and distancing it from cloning technology, which it basically is, just a clone of anywhere from one to six people. Of course, they can't do this until they've had more healthy babies born from this technology. They modified it, of course. They separated the knowledge giving portion, and figured out how to make the infant stop growing right when they come out. Actually, if Katie hadn't already stopped growing we would have…" she pauses, "You should have cut me off."

"We've established I don't do that," he says with a grin.

"Anyway, all the machine does now is combine people's DNA, and create a baby," Sam says.

"There are more fun ways to do that you know," he says.

"But not faster ways," she says.

"True," he says raising an eyebrow.

"I'd like to have another kid…eventually. And I'd like to do it without having to take nine months off," she says.

"Pretty forward, Sam, just walk up to a guy and ask to have his babies," Jack replies cheekily.

"You walked up to me, Jack, besides which in my limited experience with your love life, women have to basically walk up to you and ask to have your babies, or get married, or have sex," she says.

"Strangely that is accurate," he says narrowing his eyes at her, "Ok."

"What?" she says.

"Las Vegas is near Area 51, kind of like a one stop shop," Jack replies.

She squints at him, "You're serious?" she asks.

"Only 'cause you are," he says.

"Ok," she says.

"Sweet," he grins.

"But…Las Vegas?" she asks carefully.

"They have a pyramid hotel, sort of like staying in a Gou'ald mother ship…" he responds.

She wasn't quite sure if that was creepy or ironic, but she wouldn't let him distract her from what she guessed was Jack's real reason for liking Vegas, "Jack, it's ok if you and Sarah never got a declaration of invalidity. You don't have to cover it up by running off to Vegas with me. We don't have to do a church wedding if we can't. Just so long as you're divorced according to the US government, I don't care about the church."

He grins at her, "You want a church wedding we can have one. Sara wasn't Catholic, and we didn't get married in the church."

She grins and leans against him, "Think we can find a priest in Vegas?"

"We don't have to do Vegas. I think maybe we should get married in Colorado Springs with your priest, and then take a short honeymoon somewhere," he says.

"I like the idea of Vegas, pyramid hotel, almost as goodas Thor as an officiate," she says grinning, "And then a son?" she asks. He grins. "Are we going to tell them?" she asks indicating the cabin.

"I have a malicious plan," he says, "We tell no one until your new uniform comes in."

"You're under the delusion I'm going to take your name?" she teases. He pouts, "It would make a lot of O'Neill's on base," she protests.

"I think they'll be able to tell the Colonel from the civilian," he says.

"That's right, **I** would be Colonel O'Neill," she giggles, "worth it!"

"So you fake an urgent call tomorrow morning. They need you at Area 51 to shut down some crazy alien technology gone renegade. Then tomorrow afternoon I'll get a call that I'm needed at the SGC. We'll leave Katie with her other two fathers, get married and make a baby. Sound like a plan?" he asks.

"You sure it's not all too fast for you, Sir…Jack?" she says.

"I'm the one suggesting the speed. But it's crazy fast, so if you want to slow down that's ok. You can't even call me by my first name yet," he says.

"No, I want to do it like this. It's right. I always knew that, if we ever did get together, after all those years, we weren't going to be moving at turtle speed. Besides, I couldn't imagine calling you my boyfriend, but husband just rolls off the tongue," she says. She leans forward intending to give other uses to her tongue.

"Not husband yet," he says, "And since we're getting married tomorrow, and we've never kiss…" he begins.

"We've kissed Jack, the Broca virus," she says.

"Well, if you're going to count alien viruses you might as well count alternate dimensions and time travel and then we're up to four. I was talking about a real kiss," he says.

"Four?" she says looking at him.

"Broca, virus, time travel, the time Dr. Carter and Kowalski came through, and right after Janet died. Ok, actually we can't claim any interesting sci-fi excuses on the last one, but it was a forehead kiss, so it still doesn't count as real," he says.

"You knew I was awake?" she asks.

"Yes, I did stress jaw," he says holding that offending article in his hands. "Only time you relax it is when you're asleep."

"And for the record Dr. Carter was not me…" Sam says.

"She sure kissed like you," Jack says with a smirk.

"You know what, not thrilled about that whole incident, could you forget it?" she says shaking her head, "And when did we kiss with time travel?"

"Not time travel so much as…time loop," he says.

"Wait a second, we kissed in the time loop?" she says grinning, "Yeah, I probably would have done the same thing." Then she frowns, "No, actually I probably wouldn't have. I didn't even kiss my hallucination of you on the Prometheus, but just thought about kissing him."

"You hallucinated me?" he says grinning.

"Don't flatter yourself; you were actually a Johnny-come-lately to the crazy that was inside my brain. I'd already talked to Daniel, Teal'c, my father, and some little girl I still haven't identified," she says.

He pulls her close, "I love you, Samantha."

"I love you too, Jack," she says.

* * *

"Katie," Jack says as he sits down next to her on her bed, she rubs her eyes.

"Mommy had to leave before you got up, and I'm going to be leaving later today. Are you going to be able to keep a secret?" Jack asks.

She nods through blurry eyes.

"Three questions, baby girl. How would you feel if your mother and I got married?" Jack asks.

Katie's eyes lit up, and she squeals.

"Don't tell anyone, ok?" he says, "And how would you feel about a baby brother?"

"I like these questions, Daddy Jack, keep going," Katie says.

"You can just call me Daddy. Last question, can you stay with Daddy Daniel and Daddy Teal'c for a week while we go do these things?" Jack asks.

Katie extends a lip in pout, "I liked the other questions better."

"I know, Katie, and I'm going to miss you. But we'll go away for a week, and after that I'm going to live with you forever. So you be a good girl for a week, and don't tell anyone," Jack says.

"I love you, Daddy," Katie whispers.

"I love you too, more than anything," Jack says.

* * *

"I could not believe when I got your message this morning," the priest says. "You're getting married, Sam!"

"Yes, well, I'm involved in that as well," Jack says, "You have to love Colorado where there is no waiting time on marriage licenses."

"We want to thank for letting us do the classes after the ceremony," Sam says.

"Any particular reason for the rush?" the priest says glancing at her stomach.

"No," Sam says shaking her head, "We've never even really kissed."

"But we are going to be adopting a little boy at the end of our honeymoon," Jack adds. "But if I was going to marry her because of a baby, I would have done it when you baptized our baby," he turns to her, "I can call Katie ours now right?"

"Yes," Sam says

The two of them once again stand before him and say the words "I do" at every pause.

"You may now kiss the bride," the priest, says and Jack swoops her down into kiss.

"Wow," she asks with a grin.

"Time loop inspired," he whispers.

"Cassie, we've got some big news, but you are sworn to secrecy," Sam says.

* * *

"You and Jack are together," Cassie proclaims, "I knew it when you made your careful escape from here. Not nearly as sneaky as you thought."

"We're married," Sam says.

"Take it back, you are sneaky! How long have you guys been together?" Cassie explains.

"Since last night when he officially became a civilian. He's keeping his job Cass, so don't freak out. We're going to be gone for a week on a honeymoon, and we wanted to ask you a favor…" Sam says.

"Of course I'll watch Katie while you're gone," Cassie says thrilled to be asked.

"No, uh…Daniel and Teal'c are watching her. You're free the next week, after we get back right?" Sam asks.

"Yeah," Cassie says.

"Well, Jack and I were planning on having a baby…with that machine Katie came from. Not rapidly growing or with our knowledge in him, but he'll be born an hour and a half after it takes our blood. Jack's going to take some paternity leave after we get back until the baby is old enough for day care. But Jack really wants to see people's faces when I start walking around base with my new uniform, so if you can't watch the baby week after next we'll wait to have him until after we're back."

"I'd love to watch my new…brother," Cassie says grinning, "And I am so happy for you guys. I've actually been hoping you guys would get married since I first met you. Before Mom asked me to come live with her I sort of had a fantasy about you guys getting together and adopting me."

"Only took us six years, but we got there," Sam says, "I love you Cass, and thank you."

"No problem, Sam," Cassie says.

"Colonel Carter," Sergeant Miller greets Sam as they enter Area 51 after four days in Las Vegas.

* * *

"It's O'Neill," Jack replies.

"Of course, General O'Neill," Sergeant Miller replies.

"No, I mean, she's O'Neill," Jack replies watching the mouth drop open.

"Jack," Sam nudges him, "I thought we were going to keep it quiet, until my uniform came in."

"Ah, you won't tell, will you Airman?" Jack says winking, "Besides, they're filling out the birth certificate here right? They are going to have to know your new name. Also, your new uniform is probably waiting for us in Colorado Springs."

"I understand, you guys are here to create a child with the experimental device found on P5X-83T," Sergeant Miller says uncomfortable with the banter between two superior officers.

"Hold it experimental?" Jack says turning to Sam.

"Well, Katie is the only person we know was born from it. They want to have people volunteer to use it. Five or ten test subjects, and then they will have someone come up with a "new invention". Imagine what it will do for infertile couples or gay and lesbian couples," Sam prompts.

He points at her with a two finger point, "Katie is no experiment."

"No, she isn't," Sam says, "And our son won't be either."

"It's safe through, they haven't screwed with it?" he asks fixing a stare on the Sergeant, "Because we could have kids other ways."

"It will be fine, Sir," she cringes, "Jack, I'm going to check their work."

Sergeant Miller makes a face.

"No offence Sergeant," Sam says giving him a smile.

"But my wife is way smarter than the rest of us," Jack adds.

An hour later Sam is convinced the technology is working properly, "Ready, Mommy?" Jack asks.

"Lift the panel, Jack," Sam says.

"I lifted it last time, Sam. I think you should do a little work, here," Jack teases.

"Right, so based on past experiences if I lift the panel it means you get the first three weeks of nighttime feedings," Sam says.

"Let's lift it together," Jack says.

The needles come out and poke them.

"Ow," Jack says.

"Why do you only whine when you're not really in pain?" Sam asks.

"I'm in pain," Jack says, "Look," he holds up the finger.

"I'll have to kiss it and make it better," Sam says kissing the finger.

"We decided no kissing while on military bases, Carter ah…O'Neill," Jack says.

"If foreheads don't count, neither do fingers," she says. She pauses. "We're going to have to work on the professional thing, before we go back to work."

"You think?" he says.

"And here comes baby," she says looking as the cylinder descends. They walk across to it. When the needle drops the egg in, Sam grabs Jack's hand.

"So, much for professional distance," Jack says.

But Sam's eyes are locked on her baby, "Hey, Jacob Charles O'Neill," she says.

"Doesn't have ears yet, Sam," Jack says.

"Can we get a copy of the video feed?" Sam asks ignoring Jack.

"Family album? We'll ship it over to the SGC," Sergeant Miller says.

"Unmarked package please, unless you wait a week or so," Jack says.

"I almost feel like we should have brought Baby Girl," Jack says.

"She could watch the video of her own birth," Sam says.

"It's bonding, though," Jack says.

"She'll bond when we bring him home. She was pretty excited about the concept of a baby brother when you mentioned it, wasn't she?" Sam asks.

"Thrilled," Jack says.

"See another tail, told you they were normal," she points out.

"I guess we can't blame Teal'c for this one," Jack says.

"We have a DNA read our percentages," Sergeant Miller says, "58% General O'Neill and 42% Colonel O'Neill."

* * *

Daniel sees Jack's truck into the Cheyenne Mountain parking lot on Monday morning. Daniel hasn't seen Jack since Jack left the cabin to take care of an emergency at the SGC a week ago. Daniel was hoping to catch him before he came to work. Daniel wants to talk to Jack about Sam taking some more time off. Jack is the only one who can ever accomplish the task, and Daniel's worried Sam's too stressed. Her break was cut short by a malfunction in some equipment at area 51. Sam had been acting kind of weird when she came to pick up Katie from Daniel's the night before. Sam had seemed to be panicky when Daniel offered to drop Katie off at her house.

"I am so tired. I'm too old for this" Jack whines.

"I don't feel sorry for you. This was your idea," Sam says coolly climbing out of the passenger side of Jack's truck

"Actually it was your idea," Jack says pointedly.

"True, but you switched your job so we could do it. Also, you loved every second of it, Jack," she says saucily.

"That I did, Colonel, we're on base property so back to the titles," he says.

"Until tonight, Sir," she says.

"There is that, Colonel," Jack says.

Daniel cannot believe the conversation he just overheard. It only took them eight years!

* * *

Sam grins as she walks through the SGC, she's pretty sure no one has noticed yet. 0800 meeting with SG-1 and the General. On the way there Daniel is acting strange enough she would think he noticed, if he'd so much as glanced at her.

"So, you have a good week, Sam?" Daniel asks.

"Very, good week," Sam says with a grin.

"I'll bet," Daniel says, "How about you Jack, how was _work?"_

"Busy," Jack responds.

"I have no doubt. Any elaboration on that?" Daniel prompts.

"Something you want to share with the class?" Jack asks him.

Walter's eyes bulge when she walks into the room. Sam grins, she so won the bet with Jack that Walter would be the first to notice.

"Colonel O'Neill, there's a problem with the 'gate," Walter says.

"He's a General, and Jack doesn't know anything about the 'gate," Daniel says. By the time he looks up at the end of his sentence, Sam has already followed Walter.

"O'Neill?" Daniel says looking at Sam.

Teal'c grins. He actually grins. Jack won that bet. Sam had often wondered if the Jaffa symbiote stabilized emotions. Maybe the lack of a symbiote explains why Teal'c had been showing more emotions lately.

"You guys got married?" Daniel practically squeaked.

"We did!" Jack says, looking a little smugger than Sam appreciated.

"So when we thought we were looking after your kid while you were at work, we were really babysitting your kid while you had a honeymoon?" Daniel asks.

"Yep!" Sam chirps.

"Clever," Daniel says narrowing his eyes at them.

"Congratulations," Teal'c says.

"When I heard you guys in the parking lot, I was stoked that you guys had finally gotten together. But I never imaged you were married," Daniel says.

"Parking lot?" Jack says.

"I heard your banter, about being…tired," Daniel says now feeling like an eavesdropper.

Sam laughs, "The General can so not blame me for being tired!"

"Wait, you married Sam, and have someone _else_ keeping you up late?" Daniel says looking at Jack.

"My son," Jack says.

"I am pleased the two of you have chosen to engage in the rite of universal union, and have another child," Teal'c says.

"You had another kid?" Daniel asks.

"Yeah, Katie's machine minus the brain sucking and rapid post birth growth," Jack says.

"We've got a healthy baby boy," Sam says.

"Wow!" Daniel says, "Busy week?"

"I told you that this morning," Jack says.

"Yeah, well I thought it meant something a little different when you said it this morning," Daniel replies snidely.

"Oh, it meant that too," Jack says.

"General O'Neill?" Sam says hands on hips.

"Yes, Colonel O'Neill?" he responds with artificial sweetness.

"Remember that discussion we've had about appropriate decorum while at work?" she says full of the same artificial sweetness.

"No! Daniel started it! I should not end up with extra diaper duty, because of his innuendo!" Jack protests.

"I'll let you off the hook," she says, "just this once.

He grins again, "When you're done with the gate, I think you should check on the engineering department, seeing as how you've been gone so long."

"And so you can tag along, and see their faces, Sir?" she asks.

"Of course," he says.


	12. Ori

Thank you Bruised Reed for your wondering betaing.

Note: Moving into even more AU territory with this story.

"Dad," Sam puts out her arms to greet him as he comes through the gate three weeks after her marriage.

"Sam!" he says, and she senses alarm in his voice. He pulls her into a half hug, and is hustling her out of the control room.

"What's wrong Dad, replicators, Gou'ald?" she asks.

"No," he says, "Just visiting my family." He hustles her into the first available empty room. "Sammy, I know I told you to forget about military regulations, but I thought you had sense enough to be discreet about it!"

"What are you talking about Dad?" Sam asks.

"You're wearing his uniform for God's sake. Do you want a court martial?" Jacob asks.

Sam laughs.

"It's not funny, Sam! Your career is on the line. I want you to be happy, but you also have to be careful!" Jacob explains.

"Dad…I'm not wearing Jack's uniform," Sam says.

"Then why does it say O'Neill?" Jacob asks. Suddenly his eyes get big, "You married him?"

"Yes," Sam says suddenly looking nervous.

"Congratulations, sweetheart!" he exclaims crushing her into the most intense hug she's ever had to endure. "But how…you're still in the Air Force?" he asks.

"Yes, Jack quit the Air Force. He's running the place as a civilian now. Dad, we…had a son," she adds.

"A son? Same machine as Katie came from?" Jacob asks.

"Yes, but without our knowledge and the rapid growth. He'll have a much more typical childhood," Sam says.

"Wow, I'm happy for you Sammy," Jacob says giving her another hug.

"Dad we named him…Jacob Charles, we call him Jake," she says.

"You named your son after me?" Jacob says obviously very touched.

She nods.

"Thank you Sammy. Now, I want to terrify my son-in-law, and then meet my grandson," Jacob says.

"Play nice dad," she warns.

"General," Jacob says coolly to Jack.

* * *

"Actually, I'm retired, call me Jack," Jack says wondering why there is so much ice between the two of them. Jacob has always been friendly with him in the past. Jacob doesn't say a word. "Ah…you've seen Sam yet?"

"Sam?" Jacob asks squinting at him.

Jack finds himself sweating. This is ridiculous! He's a grown man, and he's married to her!

"Yes, sir. Since I've retired I call her Sam," Jack replies.

"I see," Jacob says.

"Oh for crying out loud! Come into my office, Jacob!" Jack says.

Once inside of his office Jacob finds himself having trouble not laughing right aloud. It was much easier to keep things inside of his head when he had a symbiote to make everything seem…less extreme. "So you and my daughter?" Jacob asks fixing Jack with a glare.

Jack stands up to his full height, "We're married. We have a newborn son, using that same technology as Katie."

Direct, straightforward, Jacob doesn't know why he expected anything else. After all he isn't terrifying some brand new recruit giving his sixteen-year-old daughter looks of admiration as she arm wrestles enlisted men anymore. She's a full grown _married _ woman now, and he's a General in the Air Force. If it was easy to intimidate him it would be time to worry about national security.

"Why not the old fashion way, Jack?" Jacob says eyes twinkling, "Issues in that department?"  
"Hell no, Jacob," Jack says catching a grin (and Jacob is pleased to notice he does look, just the littlest bit relieved), "But Sam didn't want to take the time off of work required to have a baby the old fashioned fun way."

"I see," Jacob says with a smirk.

"I think you'll like the kid's name," Jack says, "It's the same as yours."

"I appreciate that," Jacob says, "So what exactly has been going on in the galaxy the last couple of weeks?"

"Who exactly are you asking as?" Jack shakes his head quickly, "I didn't mean that to come out as rude. What I meant to say is, are you still officially aligned with the Tok'ra? Are you getting another snake?"

Jacob sighs, "I've been seriously considering coming back to earth. The Tok'ra won't let me stay much longer unless I agree to accept the next symbiote that needs a home. I wouldn't be so opposed to that, accept for the fact that I think I know who the next one is likely to be. I'm not sure living a few thousand years is going to be worth it if I end up living a few thousand years sharing a body with her!"

"Who?" Jack says.

"Anise," Jacob says. Jack goes pale.

"What's wrong?" Jacob asks.

"Please don't share a body with Anise," Jack begs, "I'll give you any job you want here, but don't share a body with Anise."

Jacob already has a guess at what's going on, "Why would that be a problem for you, Jack?" he asks.

"Because…Anise has a crush on me, and having my father-in-law share a body with a chick who has quite openly offered me sex does not sound like fun."

A part of Jacob is horrified, and a part of him finds that really funny, "I think I'll request transfer to earth."

"I think I have the perfect job for you," Jack says excitedly, "Since little miss Katie informed us she's got left over knowledge of the Ancient's and Jolinar in her head she's been dutifully creating schematics on the computer, and producing pages of written work describing different technologies," Jack grins at the proud grandfatherly look that crosses Jacob's face, "Problem is she reproduces stuff indiscriminately. Sam was all excited about these schematics she's been working on during her "work" hours for the past two weeks. Turns out they are plans to an Ancient air conditioning system. One which purifies air and blah, blah, blah, but air conditioning system none the less. She could have weapons and shields and a way to make ZPM's in there, and she's offering us up air conditioning. Now if someone else who also had, I'm assuming, significant leftovers of a Tok'ra were to lead her down that path to what information to record we might end up with useful results more quickly. Then during days and times when she's not working, you can record your own Tok'ra knowledge."

"I accept the job, Jack," Jacob replies.

"I should have made you do an official job interview, and tried to make you all nervous. I made Katie interview for her job. She showed up in this cute little dress, and talked in a British accent the whole time. She said it just seemed more formal, and a job interview ought to be formal. It was adorable!" Jack says grinning.

"So what has gone on in the galaxy since I was last on earth? The Tok'ra are sort of out of the loop," Jacob says.

"Well, there was some tape which apparently proclaimed we'd time traveled to Ancient Egypt a couple times. First screwing up the space time continuum, and then fixing it. Sam has been lecturing me about clearing us for the mission ever since, but I don't remembering clearing us for the mission, and I'm pretty sure I never would have unless she thought it was a good idea! Anyway, after that, Hammond tried to sneak in and steal Daniel away to Atlantis. Luckily the chick that beat him up on the Prometheus showed up and linked him to herself so he couldn't go. They found some treasures, and are still linked. No one can convince her to take the bracelets off. I bet Danny boy could if he agreed to marry her, but he was not a big fan of that last time I suggested it. And Teal'c has been declared related to every Jaffa in the galaxy, so he's got like ten million adopted little brothers. It sort of makes me feel less special all the times he said I was like a brother to him. And Cassie has decided to do the summer session at school, so we moved her into a dorm room two hours away. It's weird to be moving her out when I just barely moved in. I mean I consider her my daughter and have ever since she arrived on earth. We've spent a lot of time together, but we were never actually, completely a family," he sighs.

"So, how successful was the final battle?" Jacob asks.

"Oh, there are still Gou'ald out there. But about 90% of Jaffa have defected, so their armies mostly consist of untrained humans with questionable loyalty or no one at all. We've found a few minor Gou'alds with absolutely no one defending them. It has actually become quite common for two SG teams to go through the gate and come back with a Gou'ald to hand over to the Tok'ra to have a symbiote removed. It's a good day in the universe," Jack grins.

Jacob nods, "Our scans show that the replicators are gone, you have any word on that situation?"

"We're pretty sure that is accurate," Jack replies, "Of course, it's probably going to be awhile until all the Gou'ald are gone. Most still act like Gou'ald, but a few are smart enough to hide. Often the people they are hiding among are willing to give them up, but not always. And we are talking about creatures capable of switching bodies at will. And we don't even know what most of the original hosts looked like."

"Right, not exactly an easy enemy to exterminate, but at the very least they aren't enslaving and killing whole races of people," Jacob points out.

Jack grins, "There is that."

* * *

"What is that?" Katie asks in awe as the large circular object is pulled into her mother's lab.

"We think it is some sort of a long range communication device," Sam says, her eyes focused on the device more than her daughter.

"Who do you think it can contact?" Katie asks.

"Well, Daniel found it next to a book about the group of people the Ancients were before they came to our galaxy. He thinks it might be the way to talk to a living breathing unascended Ancient," Sam explains.

Katie looks at the device for a few seconds before she says, "No, not the people you call the Ancients. It's the Ori, and they did ascend, but they are different than the Ancients."

Sam's eyes focus on her daughter, "How are they different?"

"Ancients want to leave humans alone. Ori want to make them worship them so they can get more power," Katie explains after a thoughtful moment.

"Are you kidding me?" Jack mumbles coming around the bend, "We just got rid of a group of false gods, and now we're going to have to deal with another one? Will this galaxy ever have peace?"

"The Ori won't come here, Daddy. They think that we're all dead. The Ancients make them think we're all dead. The people who worship the Ori are a long way away," Katie says.

Jack bows down onto a knee, "How many people worship the Ori?"

"A lot, Daddy, I don't know how many, but it's…millions," Katie says.

"Do you know a way to save these millions of people without risking too many of our own?" Jack asks her.

"Merlin made a weapon, but I think it's gone…or hidden," Katie says.

"Pretty big difference, between the two, which was it?" Jacob prompts.

"Merlin…."Katie pauses. Then she turns to her mother, "Dr. Lee has a box, and it has…a treasure map?"

"Sweet!" Jack exclaims.

"A treasure map to where?" Sam prompts.

"To the weapon," Katie says slowly.

"So the weapon still exists?" Jacob asks.

"I think so," Katie says.

"Do you know how to get the information?" Sam asks.

"I think so…" Katie says slowly.

"Take her," Jack says, "But this is overtime, so an hour limit today."

"Yes, Sir," Sam says with a grin.

* * *

Sam bursts into the briefing room ten minutes later. She either doesn't notice or chooses to ignore the fact that he is currently having a meeting with SG-8. Not that he's completely opposed to her interrupting. He doesn't care about the fossil record of Gou'ald life on an alien planet, particularly since the Gou'ald are almost gone.

"Jack, she's gone!" Sam blurts.

"Who?" Jack says.

"Katie, Katie is gone!" Sam says.

Jack stands up, now as oblivious to the meeting as she is. "What do you mean she's gone? You were supposed to watch her!" As soon as the words are out of his mouth he regrets them. Sam is almost as hard on herself as a mother as he was on himself as a father. She doesn't need any additional pressure. "Sorry," he says.

"She was just touching the device, and then she was gone…"

"Bright flash of light? Beamed?" he asks.

"Flash of bright light-not like a beam, and definitely not like ascension," she says.

"Where's Daniel? Get Daniel!" Jack yells at Walter as he leaves the stunned geologists behind the table.

* * *

The machine blinks, and Katie's eyes hurt. She opens up her eyes, "Mommy what happened?" she asks.

"Katie! Katie!" she sees her mother screaming.

"Mommy! What happened?" she tries to run into her mother's arms, but she runs right through her mother, and the lab table. She crawls out from the inside of Bill's lab table and cries for a bit. Her mom runs out of the room.

"Well, I might as well get up and read the interface," she says, squinting at the reading. She scans easily through the words, and flips to the next page, "Gate addresses, that should make Daddy, happy," she mutters to herself.

"Baby girl are you in here?" Jack says running into the room five minutes later

"I'm right here, but you're not going to be able to see and hear me, because I'm out of phase, and I AM NOT A BABY!" she mutters to herself.

"I just wish there was some way we could know if she was ok, or not," Sam says worriedly.

Katie cocks her head, "Ok, well Merlin made this on purpose to hide his research. It makes sense that that keyboard could be affected by people in and out of phase," she tries a button.

It moves down, and Sam's eyes go wide, "Was that you?"

Katie pushes the button down again.

"Oh, my God, are you ok, Katie?" Sam asks.

Katie pushes the same button.

"Right, I guess you can't really answer that question. Ok, let's make this button yes, and this one no," Sam points. "Are you ok?"

Katie pushes the yes button.

"Are you scared?" Sam asks again.

Katie pushes the yes button.

"Can you pass through solid matter?" Sam asks.

"What kind of a question is that to ask a four-year-old?" Jack huffs.

Katie pushes the button, and rolls her eyes at her father.

"Can you see something we can't?" Sam asks.

Katie pushes the yes button again.

"Can you read it?" Sam asks.

Yes button.

"She's been pushing the same button the whole time," Jack grumbles. "Maybe she doesn't even understand us, or maybe it isn't even her, but a function of the machine."

Katie pushes the no button.

"It's her, Sir, and we're going to figure out how to get her back safe and sound. Everything is going to be ok, Katie, everything," Sam assures her. For the first time since she went out of phase Katie gets a comforting feeling like perhaps everything is going to be alright.

"What is the emergency in Bill's lab?" Daniel asks entering the room.

"Daniel, do you see Katie?" Sam asks.

"No, I don't see things that aren't there," Daniel says.

Jack shoots him a rather skeptical look, "Without the help of alien technology," Daniel amends.

"Katie is here," Sam says, "She's out of phase at the moment, but we're pretty sure she is still in the room."

"Out of phase?" Daniel asks.

"Yes," Sam says, "It appears this machine puts things out of phase. She was researching it thinking it would yield a sort of treasure map to a weapon capable of destroying ascended beings."

"I have a book found near this machine that talks about Arthur's mantle. It was capable of making things invisible. I'm guessing it was probably referring to this device instead of a literal cape. I'm going to go see what I can find," Daniel says. He looks at Jack for the head nod which he is immediately given.

Daniel pauses at the door, "Katie, if there are directions on how to get out of there it's probably at the end. Ancient tradition."

Katie begins to flip through the pages until she reaches the last one, which has a series of keys. Bingo. She presses one after the other, and she sees them looking at her.

"You can see me?" she asks hopefully.

"Oh, Katie," Sam says enveloping her daughter in a hug.

Her father's face gets angry, "Sam, our deal when she started to work at the SGC was that she would not work with anything dangerous." His hand moves over the device, "Things that put you in other dimensions are hereafter considered dangerous. I might have to rethink allowing you to have a job. Take her home, Samantha."

Sam gives him a look which plainly means, "You're being an ass, Sir." He looks down at Katie's face, and sees it is terrified.

"I'm sorry, Katie," he says taking the little girl into his arms. "What just happened was not me being mad at you. It probably sounded suspiciously like me being mad at you, but it wasn't. Daddies do not like to see their little girls in danger. In fact, it is probably their least favorite thing in the whole world. You did good in there. You were brave, and smart, and you recued yourself. You are certainly no damsel in distress, little one. But, I do want you to go home and rest."

"I can't take her, Sir, we've got a mission later today," Sam says.

"Well, I have a phone call on my red phone in a few hours, and you do not reschedule with the president," Jack protests.

"I can take her," Jacob smiles, "and maybe meet her baby brother, is he in on-base day care?"

Jack nods, "Thanks Jacob."

"But first Daddy, I have to write down some addresses I saw when I was out of phase," Katie says grabbing her mother's notebook and pen and scribbling the three addresses down.

"Do you know which one leads to the weapon capable of killing ascended beings?" Jack asks.

"Ah, no, not exactly," she says, "I don't have Merlin's knowledge, and Merlin tried to keep it a secret from the rest of the ascended beings who did share their knowledge with Daddy Daniel. "It's a puzzle or a riddle which the other ascended beings were never able to solve," she says with furrowed brow. "The addresses are just a hint," she concludes.

"You did good today. I'm proud of you, you are well on your way to saving an entire galaxy from enslavement, just like your parents," Jack says.

"Sorry, I scared you," she replies.

* * *

Katie is looking at a book with pyramids on the front cover when Jack goes to tuck her in that night.

"Hey, sweetie, how are you?" he says sensing there is something wrong from the way her forehead is crinkling, just like her mother's does when she is worried.

"I don't like not knowing the answers," Katie grumbles.

"I can understand that. Especially for you, who was born already knowing so many things. But this whole not knowing the answer thing, it's part of life. A big part of life actually. It makes you human. And it's kind of fun not to know the answer, right away. To have to struggle and fight to figure it out, and then you get it, and you feel amazing," Jack says, "If you're going to work a grown up job, you're going to have to get used to not knowing the answers sometimes. So, do you want a bedtime story?" Jack asks. Katie closes the book. Her eyes glance at the pyramid shape, and they get huge. "Daddy, you have to take me back to the base right now!" she exclaims.

"Oh no you don't, the last time I let you work a few extra hours you ended up being stuck in another dimension. Besides, it is eight o'clock at night. Whatever brilliance you just discovered will wait until tomorrow, my little genius," he says.

"Fine, just call Daddy Daniel and tell him that the address you are looking for is a combination of the three addresses I wrote down. Mommy is going to have to be the one to run it through the computers, and she's home for the night," Kate plops back in bed with a pout, "I suppose it really will have to wait until morning."

"You know, kid, these Ori, they've been in charge for a long time, right?" Jack asks.

She nods.

"If you free the people who believe in them today, or a month, or five years from now, it's going to be amazing either way. No matter how long it takes, it is going to be an amazing victory," he says.

"Thanks, Daddy," she says.

"And now for a bedtime story. You've never read this have you?" he asks picking up a book which he gave his daughter the week she was born.

"No, but I know what it is about, I know what all the books you read before I was born are about," she says.

"But books, dear child, are something you actually have to experience. The words pouring over each other is something more than plot, more than words with definitions. They are something else altogether," Jack says.

"Read it to me, Daddy," she says.

"This is a story of something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child," Jack begins with a smile leaning back against her bed post.

* * *

The next day Jack doesn't let Katie go into "work". He takes seriously the fact that she is still a child. He takes the day off, and takes both of his offspring to the park. Katie plays on the equipment, even at times playing with other children. Jake adores the sun. He can't crawl yet, but if he's placed in the shade he'll claw and squirm into the son, an inch a minute perhaps, but it's mobility.

Sam gave him a call an hour after she came into work that morning to inform him that only one address made of the three addresses was in the database. They knew where a weapon that could destroy ascended beings was located. He did a happy dance. He authorized his flagship team on a trip through the gate.

Note: I will be impressed with anyone who knows what book Jack is reading to Katie.


	13. Ending Assention

Jack sighs and rolls his eyes again, "Could you please explain to me one more time, how exactly Daniel ended up sharing a brain with Merlin?"

"Sir, if you didn't understand it the last twenty times you wouldn't understand it this time either," Sam says laying her head down on the briefing room table.

"Jack, can't you just accept that we have a weapon capable of destroying all ascended beings and work on a way to get it to the proper galaxy?"

"Daniel, do you happen to know if this is life threatening?" Jack asks.

"I've told you in the past there is a time limit in my time in this man's body," Merlin says with Daniel's voice.

"Could you at least do a head nod thing like a Tok'ra when you switch control?" Jack grumbles, "It's disconcerting."

"Sir, we've got to figure out a delivery system for this weapon," Sam says, "We've dialed two other galaxies, if we just got an address to any place in the Ori galaxy and enough power, wiping out the Ori would be completely doable."

"You're using the word 'just' a little liberally there, Colonel," Jack says narrowing his eyes at her.

"Bottom line, are we going to be allowed off base?" Daniel asks.

"We? You and your precious?" Jack mocks, "Yes, you can go off base, so long as you prove an ability to follow the same rule as Jacob had to when he was sharing his body. Alien does not get control of the body in public for any reason."

"Will do," Daniel says.

"I need to hear that from Merlin," Jack says.

"I spent my life working with secrecy, I will be more than willing to obey your commands," Merlin says through Daniel's body.

* * *

A ZPM. Something that the Atlantis expedition has been desperate for, ever since it formed. Something earth has been salivating over ever since they knew what it was. Who would have thought it was this simple to make? Who would have thought a four year old was going to be the one to teach them to make it?

"Careful, charge it slowly," Katie warns.

"Honey, I'm going to walk you up to day care before I do this," Sam says softly to her daughter.

"No, mom you are not. It's my project," Katie whines.

"You are too young to be that possessive," Sam says smiling, "I promised your father I wouldn't let you do anything dangerous, and charging a ZPM is dangerous."

"What if something goes wrong?" Katie asks.

"Exactly," Sam says.

"No, I mean I have to be here to fix it if something goes wrong," Katie insists.

"Honey, you have to accept that you are still a child. A child, who sometimes saves the galaxy, but a child none the less," Sam says as she gets her daughter to reluctantly follow her out of the room.

* * *

Katie has been sitting quietly through the whole discussion. She knows that now that they have a working ascended being killing weapon, and a machine that cranks out zpms at a rate of one per month (Atlantis was excited about that, boy were they excited about that) they really want an address.

"Someone needs to use the communication devices to get some intel!" Daniel shouts.

"Intel?" Jack asks.

"Come on, I've been working with the Air Force long enough to pick up at least the most basic of the lingo," Daniel says, "I am a linguist after all!"

"I'm not denying that someone needs to go," Jack says. We've got two stones, and I'm just trying to determine the make-up of the two man team."

"Jack I have the most experience in blending in with cultures I've never experienced before, I am earth's foremost expert on Ancients AND I am the one that figured out the return address the first time through the gate," Daniel says.

"Right, after telling me you already knew it before we even went through the gate for the first time," Jack reminds him.

"If Daniel goes I have to go. We are still connected," Vala says cheerfully.

"I would like to point out for the record that we don't have to be," Daniel says glaring at her.

"Would you to shut up? Everyone knows you love one another! Stop trying to hide behind the fact that people have hurt you both in the past. Daniel, loving someone isn't going to make them die. Vala, not everyone is going to hurt you like that Gou'ald who raped men with your body," Katie says. All eyes are upon her. There is no way she's not going to get kicked out of the room now. Great job at being inconspicuous, she mutters to herself.

"She's not wrong," Sam mutters.

Daniel shoots Sam a look.

"Ok, look, I'm approving you two for the mission," Jack says, "We'll give you a little bit of time to deal with what the mind reading child told you."

They all file out. Sam physically pushing her daughter in front of her. Katie is making a list of the rules she broke with her outburst.

Vala reaches over, and punches the code into Daniel's bracelet, before deactivating her own.

"I'm sorry, I never should have done that," she mutters indicating the bracelets.

"Vala…I didn't know that…" he stammers.

"Look, no big deal, the kid had a big mouth. Doesn't make her right, ok?" Vala says.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you," Daniel says.

"I'm sorry you lost your wife," Vala replies.

"After Sha're…I never thought I could love again. I didn't really want to. Having no one who loves you, loving no one. That's how I grew up. I was used to it. It's painful, but it's a dull ache. I can live the rest of my life like that. That pain I felt when Sha're was taken by those monsters? The pain I felt when I watched her die? When I watched my parents die? That's not a pain I can live with. I…was trying to protect myself, insolate myself. And then I fell in love. But I wasn't worried, because I thought I could never have something with the person I'd fallen for. She was beating me up at the time," he smiles and she turns to him.

"Just exactly how many women have beaten you up?" she asks.

"Just the one," he says running the back of his hand down her cheek.

"But I looked at her and thought. We'll never work out. She uses sex as a defense mechanism to keep people away from her. So it's ok to love her, because she isn't going to love me back, and she can never break me," he says. "I'm a little bit afraid I was wrong. That under that tough girl exterior you are not quite so safe to love as I allowed myself to believe." She smiles. "I can see why you would want to keep people…men away. The psychological…" he begins.

"Cut the crap Daniel. I'm a murderer and a rapist," she says.

"No, you aren't. Qetesh was. Just because those things happened in your body does not mean you are responsible for them. You are an innocent victim," he says.

"Where I grew up, virginity was a huge thing. Your whole life was about marrying the perfect guy, and staying a virgin for him. I was sixteen and just one month away from accomplishing the highest ambition of a female on my planet-a good marriage. He was the mayor's son no less," Vala mutters, "And I got to feel that sick bitch Quetesh enjoying the fact that I valued what she was stealing from me. Relishing my tears. Feeling like I was going to throw up from the trauma and the smell of nish'ma, but I couldn't throw up could I? It wasn't my body anymore! I couldn't even control my stomach muscles!"

He wraps his arms around her, and she is vaguely aware that she shouldn't be sharing this here. Anywhere but least of all a lab on a military base. But she doesn't really care, because for the first time in twenty years, she feels like she's found someone who actually does care.

"But that wasn't the worst. You know Gou'alds don't use birth control even though they view bearing a Harcesis child as the ultimate sin? Sometimes I'd get pregnant. She loved that, because no matter how many times she did it I couldn't help but get excited, couldn't help but hope you know? And she'd put me in charge a minute, a day, a whole month once, to let the baby grow. And then she'd take control, and I'd miscarry. I should have hated those babies conceived in twisted unions of the "sex" goddess and her unwilling boy toys, but you can't actually hate your own child you know?" she says. She takes a deep breath, "I'm sorry, I never should have told you."

He stops her with a kiss. It's tender and chaste, which is good, because right then something else would have scared her. He pulls away, "It was good to tell me. You probably really need to talk about those things. I'd like to start dating you, if that's ok?" he asks.

"Can we go see the Ori first?" she asks sounding ever so slightly like a kid in a candy store.

He nods.

"Daniel…thank you," she whispers.

* * *

Vala is not good at covert missions. The woman was not made for blending in. That fact is even more true when she has access to her own body, but it was true enough in the body the communication device put her in.

From tealeaves to go screw yourself in ten seconds flat. Now they want to burn her. They think she is a danger to the Ori religion. Well, she is, but they didn't have to figure it out so quickly.

Daniel has already given up reasoning in his efforts to free Vala, and is now just pleading irrationally, knowing that it probably isn't going to work, "Listen! Please! Listen to me! You have to believe me! This is not what it looks like. Sallis is not possessed, okay? Now this going to sound crazy…Whoo-hoo. But we're from another planet. That's right we're using a communication technology that allows us to take over a body from very far away…and—and—and make us talk to you. We just want to talk to you!"

"Daniel!" Vala's voice is pleading with him in desperate tones. He won't let anyone hurt her again.

"Okay, listen to me! Listen to me! You have to believe me! You're killing an innocent person!" he screams. They are holding him back. He can't save her. He can never save her. Damn. Katie was wrong. This is what happens when he loves someone. He kills them. That's why he never loved his daughter. He had to protect her from this. She didn't deserve to die. Neither did Vala. How could he save her?

"Vala I love you!" he screams. Like that is going to help. His being in love with her is the reason she's about to die. She doesn't answer. She's screaming in pain by now, the fire is licking at her dress.

"No!" he keeps screaming over and over.

Then in one poof of flame her whole body is on fire. A fraction of a second more of screams, but they are extinguished far before the fire is. The flames blow away leaving something that used to be Vala, or really something that used to be Sallis. Something that is only a bit more than ashes.

A man appears dressed clothing that reminds Daniel of chain mail minus the metal. He has a weird tattoo on his cheek (what is it with the bad guys and needing tattoos to show their allegiance?) and his eyes definitely have a quality which will be working its way into Daniel's nightmares (the creepy eye theme also to seems to be universal in space villains). Everyone bows down before the newcomer, including the guys who had a hold of Daniel.

He doesn't bow down. Screw trying to fit into the culture and get a gate address. A few minutes ago he was pretty much declaring who he was. He bends down and carefully takes Vala into his arms. He never got to hold Sha're or his parents after they died, so at least there is that. He releases her arms from the manacles which held her to the spot where she died. He holds her.

He glances over his shoulder at the newcomer letting his reproach and his grief show. The man takes a few steps forward, but Daniel refuses to even acknowledge his presence. He doesn't deserve even that much consideration. Then slowly, miraculously, the burnt flesh, and hair, and clothes, become fresh and new. Two inhales later, and even the unforgettable smell of burnt human has left the air inches from Vala's body.

He feels her pulling away. Wait? Pulling away? That is movement. Dead people don't move!

"Daniel?" she asks.

He puts his hand on her throat, he really needs to feel her heartbeat right now, "Are you ok?" he asks.

She nods her head, and pulls closer to him. He holds her close rubbing her back. She's crying. She just died, and yet she gets to continue to live.

"I've got tingles all over," she says with a chilling laugh, "don't flatter yourself, I'm pretty sure it's not you."

He looks over Vala's head at the newcomer, "Thank you," he says.

"Thank the Ori," the man replies, "come with me."

"I think he wants us to follow him," Daniel says, "can you walk?" he asks concerned.

"If it means getting away from here," she responds nodding her head, and still crying.

He helps her up, walking slowly, and supporting most of her weight. He debates carrying her, but Vala has never been a big fan of anything that strips her of her independence, so he resists the urge.

* * *

They had been left alone in the room for a long time; finally, someone comes to talk to them. Katie warned him not to tell the Ori where they came from, but he has to explain something, "L-look the point is, we meant no harm. Um, we're explorers," he tries.

"You know of others who do not believe?" the Prior asks.  
Vala looks at him with scorn, "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want us to tell on people who don't believe in the Ori?"

"Devotion is rewarded," he says in an even voice. "Those who stray must be guided back to the path."

Vala knows this man saved her life. She wants to play nicey nice. But he also burned her to death, which hurt, "Seems to me those who stray get burned to death."

"The Ori gave all men and women free will," the prior says.

"If the Ori are so powerful, why do they need us to tell them who believes in them and who doesn't?" Vala spouts back. Daniel is impressed. Vala may not be much for book learning, but she was very intelligent.

"The Ori need nothing from us," the Prior replies without missing a beat.

"It is we who must seek the truth of the universe in order to achieve enlightenment," Daniel recites. Vala looks at Daniel with a bit of concern, she doesn't like that he sounds like he's agreeing with the Prior, "Been down this road before," he says with a shrug.

The Prior says with a very serious voice, "The Doci wants to talk to you."

Daniel follows the man down the hallway to see someone who is more intently strange looking than even the Prior. He smiles as the man smiles, "Hello. I'm uh—"

"Daniel Jackson, from the planet Earth, "the Doci says.

Crap. Apparently Katie isn't the only one in the universe who can read minds. He tries to keep his cool, "Okay. So you know my name and where I'm from, so I assume you'll also know how I'm connected to this man's mind. Why I'm here…uh. You see, we're…we're explorers. We'd very much like to get to know you. Um. Your society. How you came to be.

"A Prior has been dispatched to the place from whence you came," the Doci says. The lack of human emotion that should accompany that statement freaks Daniel out. Must be all the years he's spent with Jack. Emotionless humanoids really are never good news.

"Really? You can-you can do that? I thought we were in another galaxy," he says. He hopes it's a bluff. Maybe the guy is just full of it.

"It is the will of the Ori that we should spread Origin to all those blessed by their creation," the Doci says. Daniel finds himself developing a very strong dislike for rhetoric of all kinds.

"Okay, well, I think you should understand that there are many different kinds of people in the place 'from whence I came'…um…people who believe in many different things," he says. He can't imagine all the people of earth suddenly becoming willing to adapt the same religion. He can imagine that a whole lot less for the whole galaxy.

"They shall find the path to enlightenment," the Doci repeats. This man could talk forever, and still actually SAY very little.

"Right. Well I-I think you should also understand that they may not see your way as the only way," he warns.

The Doci looks at him critically, "The power and the greatness of the Ori cannot be denied. Those who reject the path to enlightenment must be destroyed."

"Right. I was afraid of that," Daniel mutters.

* * *

Jack doesn't move as Sam enters the office. She isn't foolish enough to believe he doesn't know she's there. He's black ops trained. He's aware of her presence. She walks behind him, and begins a back massage.

"We're still on base, Colonel," he mutters.

"You going to tell me what's wrong, Jack?" she says continuing a massage that now focuses on his neck.

"I gave the order," Jack says so quietly she almost can't hear it.

"Daniel and Vala are going to be all right. We'll find a way to get them back from the machine," she comforts him.

"SG-2 just came back. That religious fanatic was an Ori Prior. They know about us, and they know how to get us. And it's my fault. I gave the order," he says.

"It probably could have happened anyway," she says.

"No, Sam, it wouldn't have. For ten thousand years they have been leaving the people in this galaxy alone, and I am the one who let the secret out. Anything that the Ori do to people in this galaxy will be my fault," he says.

"No, that is crazy, Jack. You were trying to save an entire galaxy from enslavement. Something, may I remind you, you've actually done before. In the grand scheme of things you've done way more good than harm. We've made mistakes. People have died because of us, but we've saved a lot more people than we have allowed to die," she says.

"Thank you, Sam," he says.

"You're a good man, Jack O'Neill. I don't intend to let you forget it ever again," she smiles at him giving his arms one last squeeze before she walks out of the room.

* * *

"You did good Mitchell," Jack says clapping the new leader of SG-2 on the back, "Deciding to throw the communication device into the kawoosh of the event horizon probably saved both of their lives."

"Jack, the Ori are coming. I didn't ever say I was from earth or the Milky Way galaxy. I think they have mind reading abilities. I tried not to tell them anything," Daniel says. Jack is injured by the look of tired guilt on his friends face. He tries to remember if Daniel always felt unnecessary amounts of guilt or if this is something he taught his friend.

"Daniel, I refuse to take responsibility for that, curiosity is part of human nature," Vala protests.

"It's ok, Daniel, we'll figure out another way to get to the Ori galaxy if you don't have a gate address," Jack says.

"Oh, we got a gate address," Vala says.

"Great, then all we have to do is send the weapon through to their galaxy," Jack says grinning.

"That will get rid of the Ori, but it won't necessarily stop their followers," Daniel says.

"It will cut down on the convincing miracles at least," Jack offers with a shrug.

"Not necessarily," Vala says, "I'm pretty sure the Priors will still be able to do miracles on their own," she looks to Daniel who nods his confirmation.

"However, they won't be able to make new priors," Daniel says hopefully.

"Ok, so we just have to kill some priors," Jack replies.

"Not going to be that easy," Mitchell says, "I saw someone shoot right at the Priors point blank range…no effect."

"Alright, we'll figure out a weapon that will let us kill the Priors," Jack says. Daniel opens his mouth, "Stop poking holes in it, Daniel! First things first, let's kill the Ori."

* * *

Katie is allowed in the control room as they send Merlin's weapon through the gate. It's only the second time she's seen the gate activated. The first time is when she went through the gate to get to earth when she was less than an hour old. She doesn't remember very much of that experience. The gate takes her breath away. In fact it has such an effect that her father looks at her nervously, "You ok, Katie?" he asks.

"Yeah…I just realized…it's cold," she says gesturing toward the gate.

"Yeah, and it would probably make you throw up," Jack adds.

"Daddy…we're going to kill them all…they're a very advanced race, and just like that…they will never exist again," Katie says looking at him.

"Honey, they are the bad guys," he says. He was about to say, 'you were the one who told us they were the bad guys,' but he stops himself just in time. She is way too young to that kind of responsibility and guilt.

"They are bad…but we're going to kill them," she says in something halfway between awe and terror.

He gets down on one knee, "No, I'm going to kill them. You had nothing to do with this," she starts to protest, "The gun maker is not responsible for every shot fired from the gun is he? You built me the weapon. I'm firing it. My responsibility. And we are saving thousands of people from torture and slavery. We are protecting people. And those we are killing? Angry power grabbers who have lived thousands of years beyond their natural lifespan."

"I'll never make a good leader," Katie says, "Decisions like this make my stomach hurt."

"Well, even if you never make a leader that will be ok," he says smiling at her, "But I think you're probably wrong. Leadership doesn't come from knowledge; you have to grow into it. Your mother wasn't really a leader when I first met her. She was young and insecure then, but she's a very good leader now. I think there is an excellent chance you'll be a leader one day," he stands up, and take a deep breath, "Walter, begin dialing the address," he says with absolute authority. Then he leans down far enough that only Katie can hear, "and even good leaders get stomachaches sometimes," he says with a wink and an exaggerated grab of his stomach.

"O'Neill," he says sending a smile down to his wife, "send it through."

She nods her head, activates it, and gives it a gentle toss through the event horizon.

And with that Jack O'Neill wiped out a whole race. Taking more lives, more than likely, than he had in the rest of his life combined.

"And so ends an era of oppression with a bath of blood," Daniel mutters.

"Ascended beings don't have blood," Jack mutters.

"Daddy," Katie says over dinner one night, "You said you needed a way to kill Priors."

* * *

"No work at the table, little one," Sam protests shifting Jake as she tries to eat and hold him at the same time. Putting him in his high chair is sure to cause screams of protest.

Jack takes the baby from Sam's arms, "Your mother is right."

"It's only the start of an idea," Katie says, "But we need to distract them. They can do amazing things, but only so much at once. There focus is profoundly…human."

"That's an idea," Sam says, thoughtfully.

"Not at the table, Samantha," Jack says mockingly.

"Dan'yel," Vala says tentatively walking into his lab.

* * *

"Hi," he grins at her, "Katie remembers a device that I apparently knew about when I was ascended. It is capable of convincing all Ori followers that the Ori, are…" he looks with concern, "What's wrong Vala? I know it's unethical…"

"Stop talking about work for a second," Vala says looking almost unstable on her feet.

"We're at work, honey," he says.

"Right," she says almost looking like she is going to puke, "This can wait until we get home."

"No, it's ok, tell me what's wrong," he says getting concerned.

"I'm pregnant," she says.

"Ok, good," he says with a smile, "I know we never talked about this, but…Ok, let's start with why you're freaking out."

"We're having a baby," she says.

"Right, and it's going to be ok," he says pulling her into a hug. "I'll take care of you. We can get married if you want to. And we're going to have a baby, that's a good thing," he says with a smile.

She starts to sob, and he pulls her close. When she's done crying he pulls back, and just waits.

"I'm afraid it's going to die," she says so softly he can barely hear her.

"You don't have Qetesh with you anymore," he says.

"I know," she says biting her lip.

"But I get the fear. I'm still a little afraid I'll lose you," he says, "but this baby is going to be ok. I mean you are probably farther along then you've ever been before, right?"

"I don't know, only Qetesh could tell the minute of conception. But probably," she says.

"So, everything is going to be ok," he says putting a hand on her stomach. "Let's go see Dr. Lam, and she can tell you this kid is fine."

Vala doesn't move, "Daniel," she says softly, "You don't have to be with me, because of this baby."

"Ok, deal," he says, and she feels for a second like she's going to lose her lunch-again, "how about I stay with you, because I love you?"

* * *

"Daddy, I need to go on this mission," Katie says staring at the Stargate down in the control room. SG-1 is heading through the 'gate in an attempt to find the ark of truth.

"I'm not sending you through that 'gate Baby Girl. Not until you're grown-up, and even then I'm hoping someone else will be sending you through the gate," he says.

"I'm smarter than almost everyone you've sent through the gate," Katie protests.

"That you are Baby Girl, but you're little. You may have mad fighting skills, but you are still small. Too small for a fight. Besides," he says bending next to her, "You're too important."

"Why?" she asks.

"You're a kid, that's reason enough. But you also are the only person with that Jolinar and Ancient knowledge in your head," she starts to protest, "the only one who can access it." He smiles, "Look, I don't like sending your mother through the gate without me; I sure as heck am not going to send my wife and daughter through the gate without me."

"You could come to," Katie offers helpfully.

"Oy child!" he says with an exaggerated eye roll picking her up, "Let's watch your mommy save the galaxy in silence," he says staring toward the window.

Sam turns to him before entering the event horizon. She wants him to say some words. He almost says 'God Speed', something that would mean more to her since he'd helped her rediscover a faith she'd left behind when her mother died. But he doesn't say that, because it was the words that Hammond used every time he thought SG-1 wasn't coming back. She damned well better be coming back.

"You have a go, Colonel," she says with a smile.

She smiles back at him.

"What are you doing?" Jacob asks looking critically at Katie.

* * *

She turns to him with an 'oh crap look' "celebrating?" she tries with a big smile.

"What is in that glass Catherine Dorothy O'Neill?" her grandfather says eying her.

"You're 'posed to drink champagne when you save the world," Katie offers.

"First of all, show me where that is written down, and second of all you are just a little underage missy," Jacob says.

"We save the galaxy, and everyone was about to toast," Katie protests, "and I know of at least 100 planets on which I am twenty-one."

He takes the glass from her, and dumps it into the sink, "We're looking for twenty-one earth years little missy, and we'll find you some juice for the toast. But you did do a really good job saving TWO galaxies, before the age of three, I'm really proud of you."

"Hey Dad, were did you guys go?" Sam asks entering the kitchen.

"We…" Katie beings.

"Were getting some juice for the rug rat to toast with," Jacob provides.

"Even though champagne has bubbles," Katie offers with a pout.

Her mother fixes her with a glare, "That better be knowledge and not memories, little missy."

"I can't wait to be grown up," Katie says.

Jacob hands her a glass, "7 up has bubbles too little one, go toast."

"And don't be in a hurry to grow-up, Katie. It's not all it's cracked up to be." Jack says joining them in the kitchen.

"How would you know, Jack, you've never done it!" Daniel exclaims.


	14. Epilogue

I want to thank all of my reviews. I respond to those who I can. But I wanted to give a big thank you to all my reviews who I don't have the ability to respond to. Particularly "A" who responded to just about every chapter.

Getit199 correctly identified the book Jack read as "The Magician's Nephew" the first in the Narnia series (at least first chronologically though not written first).

Big thank you to bruised reed my wonderful beta!

Epilogue

"I'm not quite sure I understand. Is it a surprise birthday party?" Daniel asks.

"No, she knows we're waiting," Sam says staring at the door.

"So why are we all standing here, without the guest of honor?" Daniel asks.

"Because Sam is so excited to meet Katie's fiancé she insisted we all be early," Jack says.

"Hold it, fiancé?" Daniel exclaims, "She's marring this guy?"

"You were supposed to let her tell that part, Jack," Sam says with an eye roll.

"KatieO'Neill has selected a spouse?" Teal'c says with a raised eyebrow.

"Be nice, she thinks you guys are going to scare him off," Sam says.

"Probably true," Cassie offers. "What?" she says, "I speak from experience."

"Isn't it true," Vala asks Daniel, "That the children on your planet are allowed to drink when you turn twenty-one?"

"She's not twenty-one," Jack objects.

"According to her birth certificate she is," Sam says.

"But it's off by three years, you know as well as I," Jack says.

"Jack you let her drive when she turned sixteen," Daniel points out.

"Right, but that was to stop the unending begging," Jack says.

"I'm telling you Jack, the license says twenty-one, she's going to act like a twenty-one year old," Daniel says.

"But she's not. What child just old enough to drink hangs out with old people?" Vala says.

"We're not all old," Cassie offers with a smile.

"But her family, you know, not friends," Vala offers.

"She'll be out of here in plenty of time for the real party," Cassie says. Both Sam and Jack give her a glare.

* * *

"Ok," Katie says taking a deep breath, "Trevor, you have to understand that all the crazy people you are about to meet are family. I have an extraordinarily large, strange family," she says with a flinch.

"I'm sure they are perfectly sane," Trevor says.

"Oh, you would be surprised," Katie says putting her hand on the door, "Are you sure you're ready?"

"So how long did you stand out there working up the courage?" Daniel asks playfully.

"About as long as you stood outside that conference feeling bad that people thought you said aliens built the pyramids," Katie retorts.

"I never said that," Daniel says making a face.

"Probably should have, it would have been the highlight of your speech," Jack says.

"Alright everyone, this is Trevor who you will be nice to," she gives a particular glare at the men of SG-1. "Trevor this is my father Teal'c, and his wife Ishta. Then my half-brother Rya'c and his wife Kay'rn, and their son Ronac. This is Daniel, he's like a dad to me," she says smiling, "And his wife Vala, and their daughters Cleo and Lisa. Then we have Grandpa Jacob-my mom's dad. Then there is Cassie, my adopted sister," Cassie springs forward an gives her a hug, "her husband Dominic, and their kids Sam, Jon, and Janet, not to be confused with my mom Sam, and my Dad, Jack," she grins.

"I thought Teal'c was your dad," Trevor says gesturing.

"Right," Katie flinches and gives Teal'c an apologetic smile.

"O'Neill married KatieO'Neill's mother when she was but a small child. It is only natural that she would consider him to be her father," Teal'c offers.

"Right, of course Jack is actually my stepdad, but I call him Dad. I also call Teal'c and Daniel Dad. I grew up with all of them," she offers them a smile.

"Pretty lucky girl to have three fathers," Jack says pulling her into a hug.

"Right…well you should probably say hi to my pain in the butt brother…half brother," she offers grinning, "This is Jake. And my little sister, Gracie. So…that's my family."

Jacob walks forward and hands her a glass, "Here is that champagne you wanted a long time ago…the day of your first victory."

"Wasn't my first victory," she says, "but thank you."

"I still don't like the idea of her drinking, she's too young!" Jack protests.

"Twenty-one," Trevor says.

Jack snorts. Sam shoots him a glare.

"Why is her age funny?" Trevor asks.

"Time is measured a little differently where she was born," Daniel starts.

"We were on a mission," Jack offers.

"Right you guys are in the army," Trevor says.

Sam flinches,

"Air Force," Jack corrects.

"But where on earth is time measured differently?" Trevor says.

"Every culture has different calendars," Daniel offers.

"So are you telling me that you don't know for sure it's her birthday?" Trevor asks.

Jack nods, "You know I knew a girl when I was younger who didn't know what year she was born on."

Katie raises an eyebrow, "But you do know when I was born."

"You got the eyebrow thing from Teal'c," my mom giggles.

"But she got all her awesome things from me," Jack says. Everyone freezes.

"Nurture verses nature," Katie says quickly with a smile.

"Ah, ok," Trevor says.

"So cheers to the birthday girl," Daniel says with a grin.

"What do you do for a living, Trevor?" Jack says narrowing his eyes at him.

"The interrogation could go both ways," Katie says.

"Oh, that'd be bad," Jack says and everyone laughs.

"What?" Trevor looks concerned.

"You're scaring him," Cassie says, putting an arm around him, "He thinks Jack's a fugitive or something."

"No, most of what my d…stepdad did…well, most of what most of the people in the room did is classified," she says.

"I have never done anything classified," Cassie proclaims.

"Right…" Katie says with an eyebrow raise.

"She said done not is," Jack says grinning.

"You know not everyone in this room has signed the page after page of non-disclosure agreements it takes to be part of this family," Dominic says.

"And you are way more classified than I am," Cassie adds.

Katie turns to Trevor in panic. He gives her a small smile. She tries to think of something to explain.

"Ok, let's play Pictionary," Jack says excitedly.

Everyone groans.

"What?" Trevor asks.

"Just…if you're playing Pictionary with my Dad make sure you're on his team is all," Katie says.

"Is he a good artist or something?" Trevor asks.

"No, his strength is in the guessing," Katie says.

"Katie is the birthday girl, she gets to be on my team," he says putting out his arm, "What do you say baby girl?"

"Right, that would be fair," Daniel rolls his eyes.

"I'm so sorry about the inside jokes," Katie offers.

"Actually," Jack grins, "They wouldn't have to be inside jokes anymore. We talked to the president about a birthday present for you," Jack grins and hands her papers.

"No," Katie says.

"Honey, I just figured since you were planning on marrying him, you'd want him to have security clearance," Jack says.

"No," Katie repeats. She turns to Trevor, "I am so…sorry," she stammers as she runs outside.

Cassie and Sam exchange a look, and then Cass gives Sam a nod.

* * *

"Honey, what's wrong?" Sam asks sitting down next to Katie.

"He doesn't know any of it. I mean really doesn't know, not like that joking in there. He's never heard joking like that before," Katie says.

"Ok, well, no big deal, because he's going to know the whole truth before long," Sam says.

"No, I don't want to tell him," Katie says looking completely panicked.

"Honey, you shouldn't start of a marriage with all kinds of lies," Sam says, "We thought you'd want to be honest, but…"

"He's going to think I'm a freak. An alien genetic experiment," Katie sobs. "I've spent my whole life learning to be normal. Lists of what I can and cannot say."

"And you have the chance to get away from that…at least in the privacy of your own home," Sam offers.

"No, you don't get it. He doesn't know me. He knows this fictional character I've taught myself to be. The minute I saw him I knew he was going to be important. So he doesn't know that I'm really only nineteen. He doesn't know that I've been working since I was two years old. He doesn't know I've never been to school, except a couple failed attempts at preschool," she says.

"He doesn't know you saved the universe from these truly nasty aliens. Created over a hundred pieces of alien technology from memories of ancient beings," Sam says.

"Can read minds, and have the knowledge of four adults and two complete alien races in her head," Katie says.

Sam pauses, "Look, honey, you might be right. I don't know Trevor. So maybe he can't deal with this, with the amazing person you are. But if he can't…you shouldn't be marrying him. And I think you should give him a chance."

Katie smiles at her mother, "I know, you're right."

* * *

"Sorry about the freak out," Katie says coming into the house. Jack looks at the ways she's poised and confident and thinks about how she has become a leader. She takes the forms and hands them to Trevor, "I would love it if you would sign these."

"No, it's ok, Kate," he says, "If you don't want me to know, I don't have to know."

"See the thing is, I really do want you to know. But I was scared of what you'd think. And my Mom," she glances backward at Sam giving her a wide grin, "In all of her wisdom told me I should really give you a shot," she takes a deep breath, "So sign them, but realize that seriously you can't tell anyone, on threat of death."

Jack's face goes a little pale, "We didn't kill anyone," he repeats evenly.

Katie turns to him looking a little panicked, "No, you're right. It was just a figure of speech. I'm sorry," she says. She knows that after all of those years her father is still haunted by the face of the dead reporter, and the fact that he is not actually, a hundred percent sure the man wasn't killed by someone associated with Stargate command.

"You sure, Katie?" Trevor asks.

"Yeah," Katie says offering him a warm smile.

"Ok," he says, and he signs the papers.

"You'd better sit down," Katie says leading him to the couch, "Ok, where to begin?"

"How about with the fact that you are an alien?" Cassie offers.

"I'm the alien?" Katie asks. She turns to Trevor's disbelieving look, "I'm not an alien, but Cassie is."

"You were…made on another planet," Cassie offers.

"We say born," Sam insists.

"How revisionist of you," Cassie says.

"Hold it," Trevor says silencing the banter, "Cut the sci-fi crap and tell me the truth."

Katie bites her lip, "Trevor there are some aliens in the room, could you put your hands up?" Vala and Cassie shoot their hands up proudly. Teal'c and family put there's up more stoically. Most of the kids seem a little uncertain how to answer that question.

"No way," he says, "They look like humans."

"Well, some of them are humans, and the other ones are modified humans," she offers, "Actually a lot of aliens are humans kidnapped from earth thousands of years ago. But don't worry, my parents killed all the bad guys."

"Which parents are you referring to?" Trevor asks in a voice laced with a touch of sarcasm.

"All four of them," Katie says with a flinch, "Ok, let's start at the beginning. There is a giant stone ring with constellations written all over it. It was found a long time ago buried in Egypt. They didn't know what to do with it for a long time until Mom built a dialing computer and Daniel Dad figured out how it worked. Then Mom and Daniel Dad, and Teal'c Dad, and Dad, er Jack, started going through it to other planets. I know it sounds crazy, but it's not. On one of those planets they discovered a piece of technology built by an advanced race of aliens. Actually the same race that made the stargate-that's what Daniel Dad decided to call the giant ring. Anyway, they were fiddling with the machine on another planet when.."

"I was not fiddling with the machine," Jack protests.

"Who lifted the panel Jack?" Sam accuses.

"Who asked me to lift it?" Jack protests.

"Guys are you seriously laying blame for my existence, when I am in the room?" Katie asks.

"God Katie," Sam says pulling her into a hug, "I am so unbelievably glad that we messed with that machine. I would not trade you for anything."

"Indeed," Teal'c says with a head nod.

"Right, who else could knock sense into us so quickly," Daniel says winking at his wife as he pulls her close to his side.

"You certainly surprised us by the way you came into the world, but they are right, I wouldn't have it any other way," Jack says offering her another hug.

"Although I'd like to mention they had me on purpose," Jake points out grinning.

"Right, you were the baby they had a week after they got married," Katie taunts.

"Better than two years BEFORE they were married," Jake returns.

"Do we have to separate you two?" Jack asks giving each one of them a glare.

"So back to the story. This machine takes a little bit of blood from each of my four parents…" Katie continues.

"Four parents?" Trevor interrupts confused.

"Right…ah…mom, dad, Daniel, Teal'c four parents…" she provides.

"Reproduction doesn't work that way…" Trevor starts to say.

"Not the fun way it doesn't," Jack says.

"My God Jack, can we not refer to it as 'the fun way' in front of our daughter and the man she's going to marry?" Sam scolds.

"Pretty sure Dad told me sex was fun when I was two years old," Katie says.

The whole room shoots him a glare of distain. Sam knocks him in the back of the head with the heel of her hand.

"In the context of the conversation it was a totally appropriate comment," Jack says.

"No actually, it was appropriate," Katie nods her head in defense of her father. "Anyway, this machine compared there DNA at each gene loci, and selected the best one. Then they combined the DNA to make a child which was- me," she says with a shrug of her shoulders.

"So you're telling me you are ¼ alien?" he asks glancing at Teal'c.

"Well, actually a little bit less than ¼, but yeah. If it makes you feel any better I don't actually have the genes associated with his unique alien properties," she offers with a smile. "You doing ok?" she asks looking worriedly at Trevor.

"I'm fine, keep going," he reassures her with a smile.

"Ok," she says, "So I grow really fast, and am born about an hour and half after I drop into this tank in the middle of the room. Then these…"Katie pause unable to find the words to describe the next bit of technology.

"Head suckers," Jack offers.

"Right, these head suckers come out of the wall and make a copy of all the knowledge in my parents, including some stuff that got buried in their heads from the time when they were hosts to or hung out with some advanced races. Stuff they didn't remember. And then they transferred all of this stuff into my head. So I've had the knowledge of four adults, and two ancient races ever since I was born," she says with a smile.

Trevor looks like he's having a panic attack, he turns a bit away from Katie. Everyone can see that Katie thinks she's lost him. Gracie sits on the armrest of the couch next to Katie, and puts her arm around her shoulder.

"I knew you were smart but…" Trevor sputters.

"I'm sorry," Katie says hanging her head.

Trevor looks well and completely confused. "What the hell are you sorry for? And why on earth did you decide to marry me? You're super woman!"

"It's true, you should hear about the time she saved the world when she was three years old…" Jack starts.

"Really, Jack?" Sam asks, "You think that's useful right now?"

"Sorry," he flinches, "It's just not very often I get to brag on the accomplishments of my little girl."

"You saved the world?" Trevor asks.

"Ah…not really. I mean the Ori weren't anywhere near to earth," she offers with a smile.

"But they would have been if you hadn't figured out a way to stop them, and besides think of all the other people in the galaxy you protected," Jack offers.

"Indeed," Teal'c says puffing up his chest.

"So," Trevor says, "How come they don't think you're really twenty-one? Is it because you grew extra fast in the water before you were…"

"Born, we decided to call it born," Sam offers.

"No, that's not the only reason. Until I was two and a half I grew at double the normal speed. So I've actually had three different fake birth certificates. The last one put me at five and a half. Because of the double growth my body was actually five, and we wanted to keep my actual birthday my birthday so we fudged by half a year. But technically it was two and a half years since my birth had passed when I got the birth certificate that said I was five and a half," she explains.

"So you're really turning eighteen," Trevor says taking the glass of champagne out of Katie's hands.

"No!" Katie protests.

"I like this one," Jack says with a grin pointing to Trevor.

"That means I am really four years older than you!" Trevor says in horror, "That isn't good."

"Not so bad," Sam says, "I'm sixteen years younger than her father…er…the one of her fathers that I married."

"I have a couple questions about the multiple father business," Trevor says, "So you two," he indicates Jack and Sam, "were married when she was born, and you," he indicates Teal'c "were listed as her father because of her skin?"

"No, and yes," Jack offers.

"Ah, Jack and I didn't get married until Katie was three. When she was born he was my commanding officer, and that meant we couldn't have any kind of a relationship together," Sam offers.

"Even though they clearly belonged together," Cassie offers.

"I'll say," Daniel says with an eye roll.

"So how did they end up together?" Trevor asks.

"Well, I thought I was dying and I gave them some advice," Jacob says with a grin and a wink.

"Yeah, it was totally romantic. They pretended they were going to work, and came back a week later married and with a baby brother!" Katie giggles.

"Hey, that reminds me. I should tell the story about how much you wanted a baby brother when we brought Jake home," Jack says with a grin.

"Ok Dad, you have told that story every single time I've ever fought with Jake. Pretty sure I know it by heart," she says with an exasperated sigh.

"I'd like to hear it again," Jake says with a grin.

"Right, and then I can tell the story of that unfortunate incident when you were two…" Katie begins.

"Alright! I don't need to hear it," Jake says throwing up his hands in surrender.

"So you're siblings?" Trevor prompts.

"Right, they came out of the same machine I did. But it was modified to not include the brain reading, and rapid growth after birth parts of the procedure. All of their knowledge they've gotten for themselves," she offers.

"It must be really awkward to know everything your parents know," he says.

"Well, it is just knowledge and not memories, but yeah it is awkward sometimes. Especially when I meet people from their past. I ran into my Dad's ex-wife once, and it was like super intense awkward, because I knew these random details like how she liked her coffee and what her favorite book was, but there was no emotion attached. Like I didn't remember him loving her or anything. I just had all these detached cold hard facts," Katie offers.

"You know what was really awkward? When she was a two year old who thought it was ok to talk about sex in public places," Jack offers.

"Hmmm," Sam says, "Couldn't have anything to do with her father telling her sex was fun."

"Trust me the wanting to talk about it came first," Jack says.

"I was trying to figure out why you and Mom weren't together. I mean I could tell you were in love," Katie says.

"Yeah, I really wish I would have had advanced warning that my baby could read minds," Sam says glaring at Jack.

Trevor turns to Katie with a look of something between horror and awe.

"Look, it's not like I go around reading people's minds. I get the whole privacy thing. I usually don't. I mean when people are talking, and thinking about the same thing they are talking about I read their minds. Or if they are lying…" Katie stammers.

"Or if you're two years old and your mother is thinking about kissing my neck," Jack adds with a grin.

Sam glares at him, "Or your father is picturing me in a bikini…"

"She never said it was a bikini," Jack protests.

"Right, so what swimsuit were you picturing me in, Jack?" Sam challenges.

"Alright…it was a bikini," Jack says.

"At least she didn't announce the worse moment of your life in front of a room packed with scientists you've known for less than a month," Vala grumbles. Daniel pulls her close rubbing her back, and kissing her temple.

"I've got a lot more control over my mind reading since then," she says glaring at them.

"Ah…Kate?" Trevor says, "Have you ever read my mind?"

She flinches, "Look, sometimes…I can't help it."

"He thinks too loudly?" Sam explains, "That is so sweet. Before Jack and I got married he used to accidently read my mind."

"Before we got married?" Jack says raising his brows at her.

"You still read my mind?" she asks grinning.

"Way more so," he says.

She grins.

"Ok, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with mind reading," Trevor says.

Katie looks at him, "I swear, I've read your mind like five times. That's it. The first time…when I said I love you for the first time. And then I apologized since it was out of the blue.." she says.

"You know I was thinking it," he says smiling.

She nods.

"Aw!" the room coos.

"Shut up!" Katie says over her shoulder.

"Language little one," Daniel says.

"Hey now, Daniel, I happen to know you know thousands of swear words in a variety of languages," Katie retorts.

"So, how many of you all can read minds?" Trevor asks.

Katie, Jack, Jake, and Gracie raise their hands. "Grace can just barely read minds," Katie says narrowing her eyes at her little sister.

"Intense," Trevor mutters.

"Ok, so he knows about my freak genes, let's talk about something else," Katie says.

"Someone said something about her saving the world?" Trevor asks.

"Great story, the first time she was two," Jack says.

"Dad!" Katie rolls her eyes.

"Hey, I'm a proud Daddy who doesn't get to tell this story often," Jack says.

"No, no Jack start with the last time she saved the world," Sam says excitedly, "Those 'exploding asteroids' last month? Not asteroids and they only exploded because of Katie."

"I am not the one who blew up a sun," she says raising her eyebrow at her mother.

"I believe the most amazing feat SamanthaO'Neill ever achieved involved using a hyperspace window to pass an asteroid through the earth," Teal'c says.

"I don't know, blowing up two Gou'ald motherships was pretty impressive," Daniel says.

"You're giving him an impression I did these things by myself," she scolds them. She turns to Trevor, "It was team work. All of them were team work."

Trevor turns to Katie with a smile, "So, what do you do at work?"

She smiles, "Actually, I was pretty honest about that. Inventing. Only I'm 'inventing' things from the memories of the ancient civilizations. The part I wasn't honest about was how long I've been working there."

"She gave me this adorable little résumé that started with the words 'to Daddy Jack,'" Jack squeals.

"You save the world with your inventions?" Trevor asks.

"Sure, there was the alien killing thing Merlin invented, and the super battery, and the big ass space gun," Jack says.

* * *

Two hours later, they leave her house.

Sam grabs her arm, "Cassie said this wasn't your last stop of the night, don't drive," Sam says seriously.

She rolls her eyes, "Mom, Trevor is driving me home, right now."

"In that case, use protection," Cassie says.

"Cassie!" Katie says flushing red.

"You gave me the same advice when I was your age, and you were like four" Cassie says.

"Take care kid," Jack says pulling her into a hug.

Katie glances at Trevor nervously as he sits down next to her in the car, "I'm sorry, about my family."

He glances at her surprised, "Why? I loved them."

"I'm really not as strange as they made me sound," she says fidgeting.

"I like who you are. Even more that I found out more about you," he says, "I love you Kate."

"I love you to," she says.

* * *

The morning sunlight streams through the stained glass windows as she walks down the aisle with all four of her Dads. Jack is at her elbow, and Daniel and Teal'c are trailing behind avoiding the long train of her dress.

She grins when she sees Trevor's face. It is all so right.

"Who gives this woman in marriage," the priest asks.

"Her mother and I do," Jack replies. Giving his last 'I do' for Katie's sake before a priest.


End file.
